■s*

to*

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF

WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM,

AND MEMOIRS OF CERTAIN OTHER DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS ;

WITH

■ *

REFLECTIONS HISTORICAL, PERSONAL, AND POLITICAL,
RELATING TO THE AFFAIRS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA,
FROM 1763 to 1785.

By BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE, m. d.,

MEMBER OF SEVERAL MEDICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL. AND LITERARY SOCIETIES
IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.

As to the Book itself, it can say this in its behalf, that it does not merely confine itself
| to what its title promises, but expatiates freely into whatever is collateral.

Harris's Hermes.

)

BOSTON:

GRAY AND B O WEN
1831.

ISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT.

District Clerk's Office.

Be it remembered, that on the seventh day of March, A. D. 183], in the fifty- fifth year of
the Independence of the United States of America, Gray & Bowen, of the said district,
have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprie-
tors, in the words following, to wit — .-

"An Essay on Junius and his Letters; embiacing a Sketch of the Life and Character of
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and Memoirs of certain other Distinguished Individuals: with
Beflections Historical, Personal, and Political, relating to the Aifairs of Great Biilain and
America, from J 763 to J7S5. By Benjamin Waterhouse, M. D., Alemher of several Med-
ical, Philosophican^and Literary Societies in Europe and America. ' As to the Book
itself, it can say this in its behalf, that it does not merely confine itself to what its title promi-
ses, but expatiates freely into whatever is collateral.' Hurris's Hermes."

lu conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An act fur the en-
couragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors
and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned " ; and also to an act.
entitled " An act supplementary to an act, entitled, ' An act for the encouragement of learning,
by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies,
during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designin",
engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

JNO. W. DAVIS,
Clerk of the District of Massachusetts*

CAMBRIDGE :
PRINTED BY E. W. METCALF AND COMPANY.

LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY CF CALIFOJ

SANTA BARBARA

PREFACE.

We make books in America as we made our men-of-war, —
one man contrived and executed, what employed several in
the ship-yards of Europe. If our ships be as good as the
French and English, we do as well as they with less means.
The time has been when one man procured the timber from
our forests, "planned and superintended the building of the
ship even to its rigging, obtained and placed on board the
warlike equipments and stores, collected the crew, and then
commanded the very ship he had created, and came off con-
queror, — necessity thus generating ambidexterity. So with
our literary productions, we have less aid, and fewer helps,
than they in the capital cities of the old world, where libraries
and learned men abound, with oral information on every
side. If we in these ends of the earth labor under these
disadvantages, our work should be judged of accordingly.
We have no guide but Truth, nor other ambition than to be
thought to follow her.

We have taken hold of a gnarled question. Should we,
like others, fail to maintain our long conceived hypothesis
of the authorship of Junius, we trust that our book will be
found, nevertheless, to contain political and moral principles,
and a spirit of rational liberty, worthy an American.

IV PREFACE.

This essay is a new attempt to disentangle the most impor-
tant and artfully contrived secret of modern times, the devel-
lopement of which will open curious matter for speculation.
It has already exercised the wits of the first men of the age ;
until conjecture has heen wearied and fallen asleep.

The British reader may well ask — Who and what are you, p
who thus undertake to solve the greatest secret in our his-
tory ? — you, born and dwelling in a far distant region of the
globe, which was unknown to the world four hundred years ago,
and where, little more than two hundred years since, an English
word had never been uttered. Is it likely that a native of
the new-found quarter of the globe should untie a knot after
all our efforts have failed ; and unravel a snarl, the disen-
tanglement of which we on the spot have given up in despair ?
I reply to such in the words of their great light and orna-
ment, their polar-star and ours, Lord Bacon. " Since a
man who stands a little removed from a spot of ground, may
often survey it better than those who are upon it, 'tis not im-
possible but that as a spectator, I may have observed some
things which the actors themselves have not." * Still, how-
ever, when a man offers a book of this sort to the attention
of a discerning public, they ought to know not only who the
author is, but what he is ; whether he has ever been in the
way of correct information respecting private characters,
facts, and circumstances, personages and affairs, of which, he
ventures to speak ; and what portion of his time and thoughts
has been given to the subjects he presumes to handle.
Books on the healing art have been written in a confident
style, with every mark of deep learning, and trait of genius :

* An Attempt to promote the Peace of the Church. Sect. II.

PREFACE. V

systems have even been built upon them, by able men, who
in fact, knew nothing, from their own experience, of the
diagnostics of diseases, adjunct or pathognomonic, nor of the
natural course of distempers, nor of the operations within
us, which, without the aid of art, tend to restore the disor-
dered machine to its pristine regularity, — mere closet medical
philosophers. No prudent man would take such a guide to
health, or listen with patience to his speculations on life,
health, disease, and its curative process. *

These considerations compel me to the disagreeable task
of speaking of myself. But irksome as it is, " If these things
be necessities, let 's meet them like necessities," and speak
like a man who has lived long enough in the world to have
all his vanity evaporate into thin air.

After being under the instruction of an eminent practi-
tioner of physic several years, I embarked in the early part
of the year 1775, at my native place, Newport, Rhode-
Island, in the last ship that escaped the interdicted port of
Boston ; and was consigned by my family to Doctor Foth-
ergill, in London, for farther improvement. He was
a relation on my mother's side, and was born in
the same neighbourhood with her in Yorkshire. After
enjoying a cordial reception from the Doctor, he sent me in
the autumn of the same year to Edinburgh, where I remained
nine months, and then returned to the house of my patron
in Harpur-street, London, in which I resided about three
years, at the same time attending various lectures, expressly
on or connected with my profession, also the hospitals, and
occasionally some of Fothergill's own practice. In the lat-

* e. g. the Brunonian system.

VJ PREFACE.

ter part of the year 1778, he sent me to Ley den, to acquire,
as he smilingly said, a little of the Dutch phlegm. To that
renowned University I was attached four academical years,
making excursions in the four months' vacation of every year
to England, France, and elsewhere. When I entered the
University, heing requested, agreeably to custom, to inscribe
my name and country on the records of matriculation, I
wrote after it, " Libera Reipublice Americans Fcedera-
T2E Civis " ; which ultimately occasioned more talk and
captious remark among some there, and at the Hague, than
the subject of it w T as worth,* insomuch that, at my graduation
a few years after, I was constrained to add after my name, sub-
scribed to my Inaugural Dissertation, only the word Ameri-
canus, before I could obtain the imprimatur of the University,
and this by the friendly advice and request of the Rector Mag-
nificus and Professors : for the British Ambassador at the
Hague knew all the gossip, through his agents, among the stu-
dents (few of whom were under twenty-five years of age, and
some were forty, and from almost every nation in Europe,
while there was but one from America ) ; and this at a time
when the American struggle was the great topic of universal
conversation, and her cause very popular; and when the
British Ambassador at the Court of the Hague f domineered
the Dutch as if they were English Colonists.

Our illustrious countryman, John Adams, who succeeded
Washington in the Presidency, was sent by Congress to
Holland as to sister States to court an alliance. He so*
journed in that country over a year before he was publicly

* President Adams notices this in his printed Correspondence, p. 572.
t Sir Joseph Yorke. See Correspondence, ib.

I'KEFACE. Vll

acknowledged as the American Minister. He resided almost
entirely at Ley den, only nine miles from the Hague, which
cities are not farther apart than the extremes of the city of
London. During that time, I made one of his family, living,
together with his two sons, in the same house. This may
account for my strong bias to politics without any wish of ever
becoming an official actor in them, ardent as my attachment
was to the holy cause of our struggling country.

My venerable kinsman in London, my fulcrum in every
thing good, was a conscientious advocate of the American
cause, as far as a wise, loyal, and honest Englishman could or
ought to be.* He labored clay and night with Dr. Franklin
and others to prevent hostilities with the colonists ; and after-
wards, when the battle raged with alternate success, he en-
deavoured to open the eyes of the King and his Minister ;
for he had in the course of his profession, and from his rank in
life, the facilities to attempt it. Their ignorance of America was
astonishing ! The people of Britain generally were ignorant
whence we sprung ; what language we spoke ; what religion
we professed ; and even of what complexion we were. The
Island of Virginia was spoken of in a Court of Judi-
cature, by a learned pleader. In a word, ignorance of
this vats region pervaded England, Scotland, and Ireland, —
their Universities, their Courts of Law, the Legislature,
and, in too general a manner, even the administration of
George the Third ; otherwise it is impossible to account for

* Sec his " Considerations relative to the North American Colonies"
printed in 1765, and " .fin English Freeholder's Address to his Country-
meri" printed in 1779, in which his decided opinion upon political mat-
ters is manifested.

Vlll PREFACE.

its conduct, unless we may attribute their ignorance to judicial
infatuation. Were we to descend to a less general view, we
might remark that the monarch, his minister, and advisers,
private and ostensible, were more inclined to lend a listening
ear to vindictive refugee governors, contractors, and hungry
expectants on both sides the Tweed, than to the words of
truth and soberness ; and this fatal delusion operated the
division of one half of the Empire from the other, and
formed an epoch in the history of nations.

In Franklin's affection, next after America, was England ;
with Fothergill, next to his native land was America. He
had long studied our country ; his father having visited it,
and travelled through it twice at distant periods, and his
brother once, with no mercantile or worldly views whatever.
Fothergill and Franklin were patriotic men. Both of them
wished, most ardently wished, for such an union between
Great Britain and America, as should be equally just, honora-
ble, and beneficial to both countries ; and that great Physician
never ceased to the last week of his useful life to urge the
necessity of Peace with America. Hence the reader
sees, — and who can wonder, that Medicine and Politics were
mixed together in a young, ardent, and anxious brain, far
distant from his suffering country !

After recovery from a slight infection caught from Thom-
as Paine, which disorder never rose to delirium, I was mar-
vellously struck by the Letters of Junius ; and my rapture
increased at every review of the brilliant and weighty
volumes. The high and noble bearing of that writer,
seemed akin to that daring spirit which impelled the Ameri-
cans to declare not only resistance, but defiance, to the gigan-
tic power of Britain, — an inspiration, we believed, like that

PREFACE. IX

which emboldened young David to combat and prostrate
Goliah. Enough, and perhaps more than enough, has been
said to show that the healing art did not engross all my
thoughts.

My mind was first impressed with the belief that Lord
Chatham was Junius, by contemplating the high-wrought
and very singular panegyric of that nobleman in the fifty-
fourth Letter of the work in question ; an impression,
which time and reflection have deepened. I now and
then committed my thoughts to paper, and looked for-
ward to a more convenient season for enlarging and arrang-
ing a premeditated publication, not confined to the valorous
Knight in armour of polished steel and closed beaver, but
extended to other men without a visor. But that time came
not till old age, with its dilatory concomitants, crept insensibly
upon me ; admonitory to others not to put off a literary task
to that late period, when loitering hours are wasted in
rumination, rather than spent in accmisition.

I was called in 1783, by the authorities of the state of Mas-
sachusetts, and of the University in this place, to commence a
second Medical School. The only one then existing in
America was at Philadelphia. My duties in the complicated
department of the Theory and Practice of Physic in a great
measure shut out politics. I performed those duties dur-
ing thirty years ; seventeen years of that time I was
pleasantly employed in rearing the hitherto neglected sci-
ence of Natural History amongst us. I labored Min-
eralogy and Botany. Of the first a word had never been
uttered publicly, from teacher to pupil, in this country ;
of Botany almost as little. T. therefore selected and broke
up the ground, and sowed the seed, and left the easier task of
b

PREFACE.

smoothing it to those who came after me with their nomen-
clatures and systematical arrangements. The botanical
branch grew and flourished like Naboth's vineyard, and
shared the same fate, from the like cause.* As to Mineralo-
gy, being even more simple than Botany, it increased sur-
prisingly in various parts of the Northern, Middle, and West-
ern States, so as greatly to outstrip the knowledge of its first
promulgator in this region. His original intention was merely
to suggest to his countrymen to be no longer indebted to
-Europe and other regions for riches which Providence had
bountifully laid under their feet. The instruction in these
two branches of natural science was a volunteer service
without any aid from the University, or the Government.

These things occupied my mind intently, and almost en-
grossed it, when a sudden and unexpected task seemed, if I
may speak so, thrown down before me. When in England,
I had never seen Dr. Jenner, nor heard his name. In the
year 1799, he, through Dr. Leitsom, communicated to me
the discovery of the prophylactic power of Vaccination
with the means of practising it. The prospect of the vast im-
portance, not only to my country, but to mankind, of this
discovery, so filled my mind, that I put every other conside-
ration under my feet, and gave myself up to the cultivation
and diffusion of a practice, destined to withdraw another
evil from the condition of man. I willingly sacrificed my
private business to this great work. For seven years I
defended this salutiferous practice, in its disputed march
through a host of enemies, till it attained a triumph so com-

* See the Botanist, in one volume, printed in 1811, dedicated to
President Adams.

PREFACE. XI

plete, that throughout the six New England States, it is rare,
very rare, indeed, at this time, to meet an American wearing
in his face the marks of small pox.

Towards the close of the thirty years of my connexion
with the University of Cambridge, the evil times arrived,
when those unruly passions rose, from which come wars and
fightings, hard words, jealousies, and fears ; in which, let a man
say what he would, write what he would, or be silent, he was
sure not to please more than one half of the community.
The consequence of this state of things constrained me
to dissolve my connexion with the University in 1812.

The President of the United States saw this disagreeable
condition of things, and following the example of his prede-
cessor, Jefferson, gave me the Medical Superintendency of
the nine military posts of the United States in New England,
with as much indulgence as his duty to the public would ad-
mit. I held this pleasant station from 1813 to 1820 ; and
from that period have withdrawn myself from every profes-
sional concern, save epistolary consultations and extraordinary
cases. From that time and not before, I found leisure to
write " Concerning Junius and his Letters " ; and to read
all I could find that had been written by others. The result
has been the book in your hand. Not that this engrossed
my mind entirely. I found time and inclination for making
a sketch, too long neglected, of the life and character of the
great and early file-leader of our revolution. I also attempt-
ed to wipe off some of the aspersions cast upon the greatest
man of our age, who died in the full belief that jJosterity would
do his character justice. In the estimation of characters,
space operates like time.

Xll PREFACE.

I was convinced that people looked too low for the author
of Junius — among the weeds and shrubbery, instead of the
oaks and elms of Old England, or else I magnified the produc-
tion beyond reason. I compared its style and diction with
the prose writings of Milton, with Swift, with the precise
Gibbon and Johnson, and with the luxuriant Burke, and
thought I discovered something in Junius superior to any of
them, — a personal ardor, a feeling, a deep experience, a self-
conviction, a patriotic enthusiasm, and a martyr-like devotion
in risking discovery, and all sublimed by a fire better regula-
ted than that of Dante or Milton. I could find nothing that
amalgamated with the best Letters of Junius but the best
Speeches of Lord Chatham.

Furthermore ; to whom can be applied the motto of
" Stat " [magni] " Nominis Umbra," omitting through
modesty the magni, but to the Earl of Chatham ?

Among the disadvantages of situation in writing such a
book as this, is the liability to err in compellation, from the
changeableness of names and titles of members of Parliament
of both Houses. Even in relation to this country, now void of
titles, British senators, historians, and pamphleteers frequently
mistake one man of the same surname for another. A fact of
this sort that might be determined in a few minutes in Lon-
don, has cost weeks of inquiry here, and ended in uncer-
tainty.

Moreover, an apprehension exists, lest in a long course of
years, I may have made extracts on small pieces of paper,
backs of letters, and the like, and in the lapse of time and
wane of memory, have forgotten whether they were my own
thoughts or those of others ; and this is more likely to have
occurred at a recent date, than at a remote one ; for reminis-

PREFACE. X1M

cence is, I find, more faithful to facts of half a century ago,
than to those of the current year. But this error cannot
have occurred very often.

As to the curious popular question — Whether the terrific
man in the masJc was the great Lord Chatham, I have noth-
ing farther to urge here. In stating a connected series of
facts, I have laid no traps for the understanding of the reader,
but left him to judge for himself — to remark, as he proceeds,
how the parts cohere with the subject, and where contrarie-
ties appear to lie across, threatening the harmony of our hy-
pothesis.

If I have been too often silent in regard to authorities, I
would remind the reader that the physician is more in the way
of knowing the whole interior of habitations, domestic char-
acters, and sentiments, than any other class of gentlemen
whatever. * Dr. Fothergill practised forty years at the
court end of London, was Physician to many of the nobility,
and most of its old families, and occasionally was consulted
by the first rank in the kingdom. His prudence and delica-
cy were equal to his wisdom ; yet it would be difficult for an
affable man to conceal entirely his opinion of characters occupy-
ing different ranks in authority, from one who prudently sought
information. Nearly every night, during three years, I, with
my transcript Lectures and common-place book, sat at the
same table with that industrious philanthropist, from eight
o'clock to eleven, both of us exercising our pens in our own
way. Had I possessed any of the Bosivellian ambition, I had

* See the correspondence of Lord and Lady Chatham with Dr. M-
dington, their family Physician, and Sir James Wright, relative to Lord
Bute, p. 3G7 of this volume.

XIV PREFACE.

the best opportunity of compiling a Fothergilliana , which
might well wear for its motto that on the Fothergillian Med-
al " FOTHERGILLIUS. MeDICUS. AMICUS. HoMO."

Besides the heads of the noble Houses of Northumberland
and Portland, the Doctor appeared to be most acquainted
with the Marquis of Rockingham, and Lords Camden and
Shelburne. I never knew that he ever spoke with Lord Chat-
ham or North. He frequently expressed his great pleasure
in repeated conversations with Lord Mansfield, who was
now and then his patient, as was Lord Chancellor Thurlow.
He, more than once, to my certain knowledge, made written
communications to Lord North respecting the real state of
things in America, during the war ; and received, after a
week or ten days' delay, very respectful answers ; but not
admitting, to the full, the correctness of all the information,
till the conduct of France proclaimed its truth to all the world !
Wisdom can draw, even from such a book as this, lessons
moral and political. The reader of it has seen Retribution's
refluent wave passing overcertain individuals, and a whole
nation. He has seen that God's ways are not like man's
ways, — that He makes use of the smallest means and causes
to operate the greatest and most powerful effects. " In His
hands, a pepper-corn is the foundation of the power, glory,
and riches of India. He makes an Acorn, and by it com-
municates power and riches to a nation." #

CAMBRIDGE, NEW ENGLAND, 1830.

* Bruce on the Source of the Nile.

CONTENTS.

Pago

Preliminary View 1

CHAPTER I.

The first Impression made by Junius's Letters in Old England,
and in New. — The first Question, Who is Junius ? — Suspicion
fell on the Right Hon. Edmumd Burke. — Arguments against
that Supposition. — An Episode 75

CHAPTER II.

Impossible that Junius could have been the sole Depositary of
his own Secret. — Must have been past the Noon of Life. — ■
A Nobleman, rich, and powerful. — His Writings marked by
Peculiarity of Style. — Their Tendency always Patriotic, and
exclusively English. — His Letter to Lord Cambden different
from all the Rest 97

CHAPTER III.

Of the Life and Character of the Earl of Chatham 119

CHAPTER IV.

Life and Character of the Earl of Chatham, continued .... 133

CHAPTER V.

Life and Character of the Earl of Chatham, continued .... 150

CHAPTER VI.

Life and Character of the Earl of Chatham, continued .... 166

CHAPTER VII.

Life and Character of the Earl of Chatham, continued .... 175

CHAPTER VIII.

Certain Difficulties pointed out, and discussed 196

xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

Stratagems and Subterfuges of Politicians. Junius's Co-operation
with the Whig-Party. Chatham never countenanced American
Independency. This always maintained by Samuel Adams in
Massachusetts, and by Stephen Hopkins in Rhode Island.
Sketch of the Character of Samuel Adams. Independency
never lost Sight of in Massachusetts. Conceded by the Author
— Confirmed by Chalmers. Miscellaneous Observations . . . 235

CHAPTER X.

Parallelism between Junius's Letters and Chatham's Speeches . 261

CHAPTER XL

Notices of Lord Camden, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, Lord
Holland, the Duke of Bedford, the Duke of Grafton, and Lord
Amherst, in Reference to Junius 305

CHAPTER XII.

Transcription and Transmission of Junius's Letters 354

CHAPTER XIII.

Character and Policy of George the Third 384

General Washington's Resignation of his Commission .... 444
Address of the President of Congress to Washington on his

Resignation 444

Introductory Audience of the first Minister from the United

States to George the Third 445

Conclusion 449

ERRATA.

Page vii, line 23, for vats read vast
" 111, " 20, dele the brackets [_ ]
" 271, " 8, for mislead read misled

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

Much has been said in America, and more in
Britain, on this celebrated question, — Who was the
author of those famous Letters which appeared in the
early part of the reign of King George the Third,
under the signature of Junius ?

These Letters were intended, it seems, for the En-
glish nation generally, but addressed, most of them,
nominally, to certain individuals of the highest rank
in it. They were of a character to attract great at-
tention in that country and in this, by their facts,
their boldness, and their splendid diction. They first
appeared in a London Newspaper, entitled " The
Public Advertiser" printed by Henry Sampson Wood-
fall, a man well educated, complete in his business,
and of discreet, steady, and respectable character in
his profession. They came forth about nine years
after the accession of a young King, who could, and
did boast that he was a native Englishman* and at a
critical period, and under circumstances which gave
them great interest and effect. By his motto — Stat
nominis umbra,] the writer stipulates, with the reader,

* The King's first speech to Parliament.

\ " Slat magni nominis umbra," Lucax ; He stands the shadoiv of
a mighty name ; or, paraphrastic ally, He exhibits a faint image of his
former greatness.

2 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

concealment. To understand his design clearly, it
may be needful to give the American reader a gene-
ral view of the affairs and condition of things in the
reign preceding; that he may see the cause and
effect of that change, which has made the history of
George the Third so remarkable in that country and
in this ; and which forms that link in the chain of our
history, which connects the old world with the new.
In the course of our discussion, Junius may appear
a primary, or a secondary object ; for the mere solu-
tion of a puzzling question is hardly worth the labor
we shall probably bestow upon it.

It appears from the best moral and political writers
of the day, that in the latter years of the long pro-
tracted reign of George the Second, the English na-
tion, and particularly London, had gradually slid
down into an idle, vain, luxurious, and selfish effemi-
nacy ; not so much from absolutely bad traits in the
character of the King or his Queen, as from a de-
generacy of manners and principles, bred and foster-
ed, as some w r ould fain make us believe, by the
celebrated prime minister of King George the First
and the Second ; which has rendered, according to
the parties to whom you listen, the name of Sir
Robert Walpole notorious, or honorably famous.

Who but He who made the human heart, and
gave the secret bias of the soul, shall pronounce the
character and true motives of Kings ? We shall
draw upon writers of the first reputation, and speak
according to our best judgment, being all along
aware of our liability to error.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 3

George the Second, by birth and education a
German, was, it appears, on the whole, a good man,
just, honorable, and brave ; but poorly fitted, by nature
and education, to be King of Britain, in which Island
he was always, in a manner, a stranger. Being past
thirty years of age when the Hanover succession
took place, his native electorate was nearer his heart
than Great Britain, and this natural partiality affected
too many of his measures, and often hung a heavy
weight on the machinery of his government. He
ever aimed at doing right, but was less acquainted
with the English constitution, laws, politics, and
peculiar character, than with the policy and in-
trigues of the leading powers on the continent,
constituting the science of the balance of power.
He said to his favorite, the Earl of Waldegrave —
" You are a very extraordinary people, continually
talking of your constitution, laws, and liberty ; — you
pass near an hundred laws every session, which
seem made for no other purpose but to afford the
pleasure of breaking them." The same nobleman says,
that " the King had a good understanding, though
not of the first class, and a clear insight into men
and things, within a certain compass.'''' The celebrat-
ed Lord Chesterfield, known, slightly, in this country,
by his Letters to his son, tells us, " that George the
First was a dull German gentleman, who neither
understood nor concerned himself about the interest
of England, but was well acquainted with the inter-
est of Hanover ; and that his son, George the Second,
was all that, leaving out the word gentleman." *

* Chesterfield was Secretary of State to George the Second.

4 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

According to Mr. Glover, a member of Parliament,
and a distinguished literary character,* " George the
Second was a weak, narrow-minded, sordid, and
unfeeling master, who, seated by fortune on a
throne, was calculated by nature for a pawn-broker's
shop." Lord Waldegrave, who was bound by the
ties of gratitude to that monarch, acknowledges that
too great attention to money was his capital failing —
that, however, " he was always just, and sometimes
charitable, though seldom generous." Mr. Belsham,
a very respectable and rational whig writer of a
History of Great Britain, says of George the Sec-
ond, " that equally a stranger to learning and
the a arts, he saw the rapid increase of both under
his reign, without contributing, in the remotest
degree, to accelerate that progression by any mode
of encouragement, or even bestowing, probably,
a single thought on the means of their advancement,
— that, inheriting all the political prejudices of his
father, he was never able to extend his views beyond
the adjustment of the Germanic balance of powers ;
and with unsuspicious satisfaction in that system,
into which he had been early initiated, he never rose
even to the conception of that simple, dignified, and
impartial conduct, which it is equally the honor and
interest of Great Britain to maintain in all the com-
plicated contests of the continental states."

Belsham's, we think, is the most impartial character
of the old Hanoverian King of England ; yet some
doubts hover over my mind, as to the exact likeness

* Author of a popular drama, entitled Leonidas.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 5

of the picture. A German military education of a
Prince has a direct tendency to make him an unfeel-
ing despot. It greatly injured our favorite, the Duke
of Kent. The High-German character is at a greater
distance from the English than that of the Low-
Dutch. It is evident that the second George had
wisdom enough to perceive, that his German military
education disqualified him from governing properly
so peculiar a people as the British really are. He
therefore, after several mortifying occurrences and
disappointments, allowed his minister, Sir Robert
JValpole, to hire his officers and his Parliament to be
good, as he had not either the power to compel, or
the address to manage them himself. To bribe men
or children without corrupting them is a very difficult
task. Walpole, however, ventured on the experi-
ment ; and if it did not succeed entirely to his own
and the nation's wish, may we not attribute it to some-
thing else than wickedness of heart in the minister?
Nevertheless, it was any thing but true wisdom, a
mere temporary palliation, as it not only produced a
lax and careless government, but contributed to loose
and frivolous morals in the great family of England.
I say England, for Scotland was still marked by her
poverty, characteristic frugality, discretion, and safe
morality.

While a host of idle gentlemen were looking up to
the King and his Minister for immediate or future
favors and rewards, mental energy and individual
virtue gradually disappeared. The character of those
times (from 1740 to 1756) in England was not so
much that of very gross vice, or profligacy, as of in-

6 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

dolence, lack of spirit, the love of money, for which
they had royal example, and the love of gaming, all
with a view to indulging laziness, ridiculous pride, and
effeminacy, evinced in the vanity of dress, in parade
of equipage, and in the ostentation of title and of
fortune.* It was an age of intemperance, frivolity,
and self-indulgence, rather than crime. The root of
all these enervating evils had been found growing in
a rich and rank soil prepared by Sir Robert Wal-
pole ; hence he has been called the " father of cor-
ruption."

The enemies of this eminent minister, amongst
whom may be enumerated the famous William Pitt,
drove him, at last, from his station, when he took
shelter in the House of Peers, under the title of the
Earl of Orford, with a pension of four thousand
pounds a year. This shows the estimation in which
he was held by his, if not generous, at least just sove-
reign ; and we can add, that he continued honored
and respected during the rest of his life.

That we may form a correct judgment of those
times, let us attend a moment to what was said in
the House of Commons by Mr. Pitt, afterward Earl
of Chatham. — " None," said he, " but a nation who
had lost all signs of virility, would submit to the
treatment you have endured from France and Spain."
A few years after, he declared, in the same place,
his solemn belief, that there was a determined
resolution, both in the naval and military command-

* See on this subject the Rev. Dr. Brown's " Estimate of the Man-
ners and Principles of the Times" six editions of which were published
in England, and one in America in the year 1758.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 7

ers, against any vigorous exertions of the national
power. He affirmed, that, though his majesty ap-
peared ready to embrace every measure proposed
by his ministers, for the honor and interest of the
British dominions, yet scarce a man could be found
with whom the execution of any plan, in which there
was the least danger, could with confidence be trust-
ed. He instanced the inactivity of Lord Loudon,
with his large force in America.* Besides this gen-
eral inertness in the British military officers, Mr. Pitt
said that indolence and neglect pervaded other de-
partments of the service ; that the contractors and
purveyors were ignorant of their own business ; that
the extent of their knowledge went only to the
making of false accounts. He said more to the same
effect in the year 1 757. This was a condition of things
most mortifying to the few great and good men, who
at that time adorned Great Britain; yet it was not
very difficult to account for it.

In this sad state of affairs, the English people saw
one half of their nobility and gentry waiting for the
old king to die, while the other half were gazing with
gladsome faces upon the heir apparent, Frederic,
Prince of Wales, and his more energetic spouse, a Prin-
cess of Saxo-Gothic origin and education. Two sep-
arate courts were kept; the centres of two opposing
parties. The old king was the nucleus of that at St.

* This incompetent military commander disgusted our countrymen,
not merely by his haughty demeanor, and contempt of our soldiery, but
by his manifest incapacity for his station. See Dr. Franklin's Memoirs.
The Provincials in authority had feelings towards Lord Loudon,
like those of the Dutch towards the Earl of Leicester, in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth.

3 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

James's, while his hopeful son received the homage of
expectants at Leicester-House. But, to the confusion
of an host of aspirants, the Prince of Wales died of a
short illness, in the 46th year of his life, leaving his
son, Prince George, presumptive heir to the crown.
This unlooked for event gave to the two courts a new,
and not very agreeable face, with feelings that require
a Shakspeare to describe them. The aged monarch
had very Kttle affection for his son Frederic, and the
prince not too much reverence for his father. The
paternal system of bringing up and educating children
among the Germans is very different from that of the
English, and at a very great distance from that of our
own country.

The Leicester-House Court, which had obtained
from the opposite party the nickname of " faction,"
was not better assorted than that at St. James's. It
consisted of men of singular and opposite characters.
The most conspicuous personage in it was John
Earl of Bute, who had been made, not without con-
siderable difficulty, and some scandal, groom of the
stole, answering in our language to keeper of a prince's
wardrobe. He was a Scotchman of handsome figure,
theatrical air, and showy accomplishments, with a
measured solemnity of manner, imparting an im-
pression that it was not recently assumed, but
" dyed in the wool." Mr. Doddington, afterwards
Lord Melcombe, was another favorite of a different
stamp, a man of courtly talents and pliant constitu-
tion, unsteady in his principles, vain, selfish, and
inconstant, yet very useful to men of an opposite
character ; for he was quick in discernment and ca-

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 9

pable of giving good advice, yet a gossip withal, as
evinced by his printed diary.

His royal Highness, Prince Frederic, was univer-
sally considered very much below his brother next
in age to him, William, Duke of Cumberland, the fa-
vorite son of George the Second ; for William was
very respectable as a man of sense, and a soldier,
complete according to the German system of rigid
discipline ; whereas his elder brother was deficient
in the ordinary dictates of prudence. He used to
discuss freely and openly with his adherents the
general system of his administration when his father's
death should call him to the throne, of which he
never admitted the least doubt. How unlike his
grandson, the present monarch of England ! " Per-
haps," says the historian of the life of Pitt, Earl of
Chatham,* " nothing ever more forcibly proved the
uncertain lot of humanity, and the vanity of all hu-
man expectations, than the plans and hopes of those
who regarded him as their future sovereign. His
father's years exceeded those generally allotted to
man ; and his own succession to the throne was an-
ticipated as an event of almost daily probability.
The political aspirant already fancied himself in pos-
session of those honors in a future reign, which were
denied to him under the present sovereign."

The court of the late Frederic, Prince of Wales,
at Leicester-House, had regarded with an evil eye
the old, stiff, and formal assemblage at St. James's.
Directly on the unexpected death of the Prince, a

* History of the Right Hon. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. By the
Rev. Francis Thackeray. 3 vols. 4to. Lond. 1817.

1 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

new and strenuous contest arose ; and this was for
nothing less than who should get possession of Prince
George, now the heir apparent, and mould him to
their wish and will, so as to influence him after he
became king. The ascendency of his mother was
hardly then known beyond the walls of the nursery,
nor was the indirect influence of Lord Bute much
suspected abroad. The Princess Dowager of Wales,
a smart woman of peculiar talents, partaking more of
the French cast of character than the English, now
incessantly sounded in the ears of her son, this short
maxim, — " George, be King ! " — that is, being inter-
preted, 'Beware of the shackles to which your grand-
father submits ; do as We direct you, and beyond
that, have your own way ' : — and his own way he
had, until the nation was, as we shall see, on the
brink of ruin, brought thither by his constitutional
obstinacy in his war with these colonies.

Before the death of Frederic, and indeed after it,
the aged monarch, his father, was sadly perplexed
with little factions springing up, apparently causeless,
but really from the lack of diverting objects, which
are but few in Britain compared with France. The
King and people were pretty constantly haunted by
two appalling spectres, one " the Pretender," the
other a French invasion. The exhaustless fund of
information, amusement, and gratification derived
from the history of nature, from philosophy gen-
erally, from the study of physics, from polite litera-
ture and the fine arts, found no encouragement
at the court of George the Second. The rich-
est noblemen of England, and private gentlemen of

PRELIMINARY VIEW. \ \

immense fortune, with whom Britain abounds, have
not the adequate objects for enjoying their personal
wealth in their native island, nor the turn for culti-
vating their minds which the opulent Dutch have.
Hence they leave their homes, and simple forms of
religion, to roam in France and in Italy, where
amusement and fashion are interwoven with the
government and the religion, and reduced almost
to a science. It was apparent, that the manners of
France, Italy, and Germany had their influence in
England, while the spirit of Old England operated
little or nothing upon those countries. It was just so
in ancient times. The opulent young Romans were
wont to stray from home through the more polished
states of Greece, to the grief and scandal of the wise
and patriotic Cato.

The sad degeneracy of manners and principles
already hinted at was not owing to Italian or French
influence superinduced on a Stuart education, as in
the case of King Charles the First; nor was it owing
to absolute profligacy, as in the reign of his immoral
son ; but it sprang from the root of all evil, the love
of money, combined with idleness. The gloomy and
chilly atmosphere, which settled around the aged
monarch, produced a drowsiness in all. Even at the
royal levee, the stiff old German monarch generally
" stood," says that provoking writer, Horace Walpole,
"on one spot, with his eyes fixed on the floor, and but
seldom raised to converse, only dropping now and
then, a bit of German news. It was more like the
den of a lion than the levee of a king." With due
allowance for this well known noble snarler, we be-

]2 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

lieve that Lord Orford had grounds for his sarcastic
description. Now this behaviour in the Majesty of
Great Britain was not from pride or ill humor, for
the King had neither, but from constitutional phlegm,
and exotic military manners, which he was too old to
throw off. He could not be affable. His very par-
tial and affectionate friend, Earl Waldegrave, says,
that when he talked, it was very much to the pur-
pose, but that he could not discourse with ease in a
large company. It was a misfortune, it seems, the
King could not surmount, unless he was in a great
passion. I say a misfortune ; for if the chief magis-
trate of any country is not, to a certain degree, cour-
teous and ready, he will find enemies, where he little
suspects or deserves them. This was somewhat
the case with King William the Third, who felt the
like awkwardness, when called from Holland to the

throne of Britain.*

In this gloomy condition of the very fountain of

honor and gallant enterprise, the court of London,
instead of being a beautiful and fertilizing river, like
her own Thames, changed to a stagnant pond, the
atmosphere of which became unpleasant and un-
wholesome, till the famous William Pitt broke its
scum and dissipated its deleterious vapors.

While this sluggish state of things lasted, we ought
not to be surprised, that gaming, drinking, frivolity,

* Is not this embarrassment more or less the case with every man in
a high station, who has not a complete knowledge of the idioms
of the language he is to speak in ? King William the Third, in an-
swering, extemporaneously, a loyal address upon his first landing in
England, when he meant to say, I come for your good, for the good of
you all, unluckily said, " J come for your good, for all your goods ! "
This was enough to shut his mouth ever after.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 13

and their debasing concomitants lowered the charac-
ter of the land whence we of New England sprang.
Assuredly, idleness and effeminacy are not the char-
acteristics of the Britons. The spirit of liberty, un-
der most of the Plantagenets, " the barons bold,"
who obtained the Great Charter, the unextin-
guished fire of freedom that glimmered in the em-
bers under the reign of the Tudors and of the
Stuarts, the flint and steel of our Puritan ancestry,
all, all have shown, on smart collision, how great a
matter a little fire kindleth.

Without swerving into the too common cant of the
degeneracy of the times, we must acknowledge that
there did actually exist in England, from about the
year 1741 to 1757, a lamentable deterioration of man-
ners and principles, especially in the vast city of
London. It was, however, a' favorable symptom,
that, in her lethargic condition, the renowned capital
and the whole realm felt stung to the quick by the
keen reproaches of Mr. Pitt in the House of Com-
mons ; and by a few moral writers that appeared
about the same time, amongst whom shone pre-
eminent the Rev. Dr. Brown, a distinguished epis-
copal clergyman. The pulpits of the established
church are not remarkable for catechizing the court
in England ; less so than in Paris. Dr. Brown's
book ran rapidly through six editions in England
and one in Boston, in the year 1758. A few pul-
pits in Britain followed the example of the author
of the " Estimate of the Manners anal Principles
of the Times." The most glaring vices and fol-
lies of the day were, moreover, met by the keen

14 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

satire of the drama, and by the moral pencil of Ho-
garth. If some hung their heads with shame, others
started back with affright from the mirror thus held
up to them. The more serious and reflecting part of
the inhabitants of Old England saw with mortification
their vexatious condition ; with an aged Hanoverian
King, a stranger, homesick,* destitute of all taste for
the beauties of nature, literature, or the arts.f Of mu-
sic, he relished only the loud-sounding, rattling peals
of a military band. Not altogether wise enough to gov-
ern by himself as King of Great Britain, he was not
sufficiently magnanimous to be wholly directed by
those who were. On ill terms with his eldest son
Frederic, he never appeared to regret his loss, while
he himself was not correctly moral in his own family.
He never seemed to feel himself at home in England.
These exotic qualities, propensities, and circumstan-
ces conspired to form a thin, perhaps a very thin
partition between him and the most correctly moral
of the old English nobility. The men respected him

* Nostalgia, — Desiderium patriae, affiniumve. Linn-EUS.

f An anecdote may convey some idea of the taste of the second
George, and of his relish for the fine arts. When Hogarth painted
" The March to Finchley" Lord Chesterfield, then Secretary of State,
caused the picture to be brought to the King, thinking that such an
admirable painting of his own troops and subjects, enlivened by Ho-
garth's characteristic humor, would delight the military monarch, as it
did every one who gazed on it. But on viewing it, he colored with
rage, and exclaimed, " What does de painter mean 1 ) Does he dare to
ridicule my soldiers ! Take away de trumpery. De fellow deserves to he
picketted for his impudence." Though half a century has passed away
since I saw this admirable picture in the London Foundling-Hospital,
every portion of it is fresh in my memory ; the production of real
genius in a man capable more than any other of representing on can-
vass, I had almost said, all the parts of speech, even to the interjection.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. J 5

as brave, just, and of good intentions ; and'surround-
ed by the halo of the solemn etiquette of a German
Generalissimo, he never appeared otherwise than
dignified. If he could not always relish the refined
wit of Lord Chesterfield, nor entirely comprehend
the pure diction of Lord Chatham's communications,
he nevertheless was pleased with the deference and
politeness of both, and above all with the promptness,
decision, and courage of the latter, as will appear
hereafter.

Besides systematic bribery* with a laudable inten-
tion, Sir Robert Walpole endeavoured to fill his sove-
reign's breast with alarms of conspiracies to bring in
" the Pretender," and of French invasions. After
that minister was compelled by the popular current,
and Pitt's oratory, to retire, the Pelhams, Thomas
and Henry, supplied his place. The latter was Duke
of Newcastle ; a man of a singular character, and
much inferior to his brother, eager and impatient for
office, yet ever dreading the clangers of it. He was
at once abused, flattered, and ridiculed, yet had he
good qualities and great influence. Earl Waldegrave
says of him, " In the midst of prosperity and ap-

* " An English minister wrote to Cardinal Fleury, Premier of Louis
the Fifteenth, thus : — ' I pension half the Parliament to keep it quiet.
But as the King's money is not sufficient, they, to whom I give none,
clamor loudly for war ; it would be expedient for your Eminence to
remit me three millions of French livres, in order to silence these
barkers. Gold is a metal which here [in England] corrects all ill qual-
ities in the blood. A pension of two thousand pounds a year will make
the most impetuous warrior in Parliament as tame as a lamb.'" (Me-
moirs of the Marchioness of Pompadour, pages 57-59. English trans.
17fi(i.) To this end they have in England what they call a manager
or conductor of the House of Commons.

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

parent happiness, the slightest disappointment, or any-
imaginary evil, will, in a moment, make him misera-
ble ; his mind can never be composed ; his spirits
are always agitated. Yet this constant ferment,
which would wear out and destroy any other man, is
perfectly agreeable to his constitution ; he is at the
very perfection of health, when his fever is at the
greatest height. His character is full of inconsisten-
cies ; the man would be thought very singular who
differed as much from the rest of the world as he
differs from himself." * Yet this whiffling nobleman
continued in the highest employments nearly forty
years : when his friends were routed, his Grace of
Newcastle still maintained his ground ; for he offend-
ed no man by his pride, nattered many by an extrav-
agant familiarity ; and though he gave bribes, he
never was suspected of accepting them ; he greatly
impaired his estate by keeping up a good parliamen-
tary interest, and he retired without accepting a
pension.

The Duke of Newcastle must have possessed
some qualities of an able minister ; yet, says Lord
Waldegrave, " Talk with him concerning public or
private business, of a nice and delicate nature, he
Avill be found confused, irresolute, continually ram-
bling from the subject, contradicting himself almost
every instant. Hear him speak in Parliament, his
manner is ungraceful, his language barbarous, his
reason inconclusive. At the same time, he labors
through all the confusion of a debate without the

* Waldegrave's Memoirs, from 1754 to 1758.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. J7

least distrust of his own abilities ; fights boldly in the
dark ; never gives up the cause, nor is he ever at a
loss either for words or arguments ; while his extra-
ordinary care of his health is a jest even among his
flatterers." *

This good-natured Duke of Newcastle was prime
minister to George the Second, when Mr. Pitt was
paymaster. But the latter could not refrain from
treating his Grace with contempt. In an official con-
ference, he told the Duke that he was ignorant of his
own business, that he engaged for subsidies, while
the King was gone to Hanover, without knowing the
extent of the sums ; and for alliances without know-
ing the terms. It may be asked, Why did not the
Duke dismiss him ? Because the "nervous" minis-
ter trembled at the idea of the thunder and lightning
of Pitt's oratory in Parliament. So far from resent-
ment, he courted his favor, and sent the Hon.
Charles Yorke to secure his alliance, and tender his
sincere friendship and entire confidence. Mr. Pitt
replied, that he labored under the King's displeasure,
which the Duke of Newcastle ought to have removed,
as he knew that the royal displeasure arose from
misrepresentation ; and until that proscription was
taken off he would enter into no conversation what-
ever, either with his Grace, or any other person from
him. Mr. Fox (afterwards Lord Holland), being
informed of this difference between the Duke of
Newcastle and Mr. Pitt, made a proposal to join
Mr. Pitt against the Duke. Mr. Pitt rejected the

* Waldegrave's Memoirs.

IQ PRELIMINARY VIEW.

proposal.* This anecdote characterizes the men ;
a weeping-willow, and an inflexible English oak ;
one bending to every breeze, the other haughty, in-
dependent, and severe. What a minister for such
an honest, straight-forward monarch as George the
Second ! I will not risk perplexing the reader and
myself by narrating the undignified squabbles that
ensued. I shall only remark that the aged King was
left by the eager office-seekers in a manner that de-
serves the name of barbarous. He complained, even
with tears, to those about him, that he was ungene-
rously treated, and that none had conducted towards
him with proper consideration since Sir Robert Wal-
pole had been unfeelingly driven away from him.

To this discordant condition of an imbecile court,
we may add the unhappy state of morals in every
class, as painted by Charles Johnstone in his " Chry-
sal, or Adventures of a Guinea" at a period when
vice disdained the mask of decorum. Sir Walter
Scott, whom no.one will suspect of a disposition to slur
the great, says in his Preface to that work, " The
general corruption of the ministers themselves, and
their undisguised fortunes, acquired by an avowed
system of perquisites, carried, in our fathers' times,
a corresponding spirit of greed and rapacity into
every department, while at the same time it blinded
the eyes of those who should have prevented spolia-
tion. If those in subordinate offices paid enormous
fees to their superiors, it could only be in order to
purchase the privilege for themselves of cheating the

* Anecdote* of the Life of the Right Hon. William Pitt, Earl of
Chatham. 7th ed. London. 1810.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 19

public with impunity ; and in the same manner, if
commissaries for the army and navy filled the purses
of the commanders, they did so only that they might
thereby obtain full license to exercise every sort of
pillage, at the expense of the miserable privates.
We were well acquainted with men of credit and
character, who served in the Havana expedition ; and
we have always heard them affirm, that the infamous
and horrid scenes described in Chrysal were not in
the slightest degree exaggerated. That attention to
the wants, that watchful guardianship of the rights
and interests of the private soldier and sailor, which
in our days do honor to these services, were then
totally unknown. The commanders in each depart-
ment had in their eye the amassing of wealth, instead
of the gathering of laurels, as the minister was deter-
mined to enrich himself, with indifference to . the
welfare of his country ; and the elder Pitt, as well
as Wolfe, were considered as characters almost
above humanity, not so much for the eloquence and
high talents of the one, or the military skill of the
other, as because they made the honor and interest
of their country their direct and principal object."

It was in this sad condition of things regal and
common, when the monarch dwelt, in a great meas-
ure isolated, and passed his time heavily, ruminat-
ing on his perplexities without seeing clearly his way
out of them, that one of the oldest peers of the
realm* quitted his retirement, to wait upon his lonely
sovereign, and confer with him upon his affairs. On

* Duke of Devonshire.

20 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

this occasion he most earnestly and respectfully ad-
vised the King to call Mr. Pitt into his service, as the
only man, who, by his superior talents, tried integrity,
and overwhelming popularity, could restore things to
order ; and in this opinion, he was joined by some ele-
vated characters, who had not the most cordial feel-
ings towards " the Great Commoner" as he was called.
This was a severe trial to the aged monarch's tem-
per, for he hated the very name of Pitt, who had, in
the House of Commons, thwarted him in most of his
German measures and Hanoverian politics ; but he
now felt the necessity of compliance, and he acqui-
esced in a manner that ought to be recorded to his
everlasting honor.*

The King's aversion to Pitt may be easily con-
ceived. He had infinitely more honesty and sin-
cerity than Charles the Second, and as a smiling
courtier, he came far short of his grandson ; for if
any thing disturbed the former you could instantly
perceive it. The ministers of the honest-hearted
George the Second always knew where to find him.

As to Mr. Pitt, he was naturally haughty, and con-
stitutionally and habitually overbearing. His impa-
tience was probably augmented by his gouty diathe-
sis. He pursued his patriotic course with little regard
to the personal feelings of any man, and he could not
easily separate great earnestness from harshness of
expression. Being all mind, he had an exhaustless

* George the Second suffered an irreparable loss in the death of
Queen Caroline, who had quick discernment, sound judgment, great
prudence, and strong attachment to her passionate spouse, which she
exercised to the best effect in spite of Lady Yarmouth's influence.

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

treasure of words, and when excited by his subject,
he generally used the keenest in exposing ignorance
and absurdity, and in denouncing avarice, corruption,
and wastefulness. But ever so impetuous, he was
always honest, always patriotic and nobly disinter-
ested.

Among the personal friends of George the Second
was the Earl of Waldegrave, and the preference did
honor to his Majesty's judgment, as that nobleman was
wise, learned, and unassuming. Through him the
King communicated his heartfelt sentiments to
others; for the vacillating Duke of Newcastle, who
was jealous of all who had abilities, and ever fearful
of the consequences of his own steps, could be no
great favorite of a prudent King ; yet had he great
influence. Horace Walpole (Lord Orford) thus
speaks of his Grace : " At a period of detected mis-
government with regard to his country, of ingratitude
and disobedience to his master, of caprice, duplicity,
and irresolution towards all factions ; when under
prosecution by Parliament, and frowned on by his
Sovereign, at this instant were the hopes, the vows
of all men addressed to him. The outcast of the
ministry, the scorn of the court, the jest of the peo-
ple, was the arbiter of Britain ! Her king, her
patriots, her factions, waited to see into what scale
he [the Duke of Newcastle] would fling his influ-
ence." Walpole must have transcended his usual
style of vituperation, or the Duke must have cun-
ningly distributed gifts and little bribes, wherever
he moved or meant to move. Yet this nobleman,
thus characterized or caricatured, appeared to his

22 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

Majesty the most proper person to treat with re-
specting a change. With all his foibles, he was, on
the whole, a meritorious man. He was a disinter-
ested patriot, spent a princely fortune in honor of
his country, and retired without accepting a pension.

The nation had been precipitated into a war with-
out any preparation or provision, with the Duke of
Newcastle to conduct it.

On the 11th of June 1757, the Lord Chief Justice
Mansfield was sent for to attend the King at Ken-
sington, and after much confidential conversation, his
Lordship was empowered to negotiate with Mr. Pitt
and the Duke of Newcastle ; and a ministry was
formed according to Mr. Pitt's arrangement. With-
out detailing the whole, we shall only remark, that
Lord Temple was appointed privy seal, the Right
Hon. Henry Fox paymaster of all the land forces,
and Mr. Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden) attorney
general.

And this is the commencement of William Pitt's
glorious administration, during which the power
of Great Britain was carried to the highest pitch of
renown, partly by the coalition of three heretofore
discordant parties, but chiefly by the master-mind,
and the extraordinary and honorable popularity, of
the great Statesman whom the King, in the true
spirit of magnanimity, had called to administer the
government.

The following truly sapient sentences were uttered
at the first audience of business between the King
and his new minister. Mr. Pitt. " Sire, give me your
confidence, and I will deserve it." The King. "De-

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 23

serve my confidence, and you shall have it." Each
kept his word to the end of his Majesty's reign ;
and the nation rejoiced in her prosperity accordingly.

Behold, then, my countrymen, — for I write for
you, — an English gentleman, a member of the British
House of Representatives, a man without title or
fortune, suffering under a cruel hereditary disease,
liable to all its dreadful recurrences, a cripple, unable
to mount a horse, wielding the destinies of the first
maritime nation on the globe, in behalf of an aged
and passionate monarch, whose highest eulogium was
that of a brave heart and good intentions, and who
for a series of years could never hear the name of
Pitt without visible marks of anger.

The minister had an Herculean task before him.
He first endeavoured to redeem the English char-
acter from the reproach cast upon it by the Wal-
polean system of bribery. But in the invidious en-
terprise of reformation, difficulties, appalling to any
other man, stared him in the face at every turn. Nor
was the Duke of Newcastle heartily disposed to
lessen them. Pitt's personal character and conduct
had a good effect, and formed a striking contrast to
the prevalent manners of the times. He, like Car-
dinal Richelieu, gave no dinners or suppers, had no
levees ; but kept aloof from those moths of time,
health, and mental energy : yet not a measure he
suggested, action performed, or word uttered, but
was distorted to some malicious purpose. He had
an excellent coadjutor in the person of the Hon.
H. B. Legge, chancellor of the exchequer, a gentle-
man of distinguished abilities and sterling integrity.

24 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

The next object of Mr. Pitt's solicitude was the
security of these North American colonies from the
encroachments of the French, who, with their allies,
the Indians, were making an alarming progress on
our frontiers. He laid a train for the destruction of
the power of France in this new world, and effected
it by the skill and bravery of Generals Wolfe and
Amherst*

At home, he roused the slumbering faculties of
a then luxurious and spiritless generation. By his
extraordinary energy, and his w r onderful powers of
eloquence, he excited the pride of the legislature ;
called forth reflective reason, and directed it to the
reformation of manners and principles. He awakened
the army and the navy from their dreaming indolence,
and inspirited the whole nation, too long sunk in the
laziness of peace. Lest this picture may be thought
highly colored, we subjoin what has been said of the
British officers of that day, by an eminent writer in the
present reign, renowned for his loyalty. f " No science
was required on the part of the candidate for a com-
mission, no term of service as a cadet, no previous ex-
perience whatsoever; the promotion went on equally
unimpeded; the boy let loose from school the last
week, might in the course of a month be a field-offi-
cer, if his friends were disposed to be liberal of
money and influence. Others there were, against
whom there could be no complaint for want of length

* The conquest of Canada was earnestly recommended to the Earl
of Chatham, when Mr. Pitt, by Dr. Franklin.

f Sir Walter Scott. Miscellaneous Prose Works, Vol. iv. p. 291.
Boston edit. 1829.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 25

of service, although it might be difficult to see how
their experience was improved by it. It was no un-
common thing for a commission to be obtained for a
child in the cradle ; and when he came from college,
the fortunate youth was at least a lieutenant of some
standing, by dint of fair promotion. To sum up this
catalogue of abuses, commissions were in some in-
stances bestowed upon young ladies, when pensions
could not be had. We knew ourselves," says Sir
Walter Scott, " one fair dame who drew the pay of

captain in the dragoons, and was probably not

much less fit for the service than some who, at that
period, actually did duty ; for, as we have said, no
knowledge of any kind was demanded from the young
officers. If they desired to improve themselves in
the essential parts of their profession, there were
no means open either of direction or of instruction."
— "An intelligent sergeant whispered, from time
to time, the word of command, which his captain
would have been ashamed to have known without
prompting ; and thus the duty of the field-day was
huddled over rather than performed."

If this was the case even since our last war with the
British, as here represented, what might it not have
been under Lord Loudon in America ; and under
Admiral Byng in the Mediterranean in the year 1755 ?

When Pitt took the reins of government the officers,
both of sea and land, felt they had now a new master,
acquainted thoroughly with his own duties and with
theirs. With a keen eye, he scrutinized every de-
partment ; and breathed into a startled nation the
breath of life, every part of which, even to " these

4 '

26 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

ends of the earth," (characteristically so called by the
London Society for the propagation of the Gospel
in foreign parts,) felt the warmth of his invigorating
mind, which produced industry, regularity, and de-
spatch. There was then harmony at Head Quarters,
and unanimity in Parliament. Forty-four French
ships of the line, sixty-one frigates, and twenty-six
sloops of w r ar, were taken or destroyed by the
British ; and with them the commerce of France
was in a manner annihilated. In about three years,
Pitt wrested from France all her most valuable isl-
ands and possessions in both Indies. Nor did his
victories stop there ; he prostrated her dangerous
power on this continent by the entire conquest of
Canada. The annals of no two equally civilized na-
tions afford a parallel instance. Prior to this, France
was more renowned for arts and arms than England.
The modern language of Mars was the French
tongue, and we ourselves could not talk properly of
the theory or the practice of war, without using it.

At that epoch, the whole British Empire, in all its
vastness, these now United States being then a part
of it, included a portion of what used to be called the
Mogul Empire, with many islands and colonies in
Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. They all
looked up with grateful admiration to the Right Hon.
William Pitt, as the origin, fountain, and cause of this
extraordinary prosperity. Beside the advantages
derived from conquests over France and her ally,
Spain, that minister had the everlasting honor to
leave the late thirteen British colonies in perfect
security and happiness ; the inhabitants glowing with

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 27

warm affection for the parent country, and rejoicing
to see riches and glory flow in upon her, from all
quarters of the habitable globe. This was the acme
of England's power and glory, and of our colonial
contentment and good-humor.

In the midst of this unexampled prosperity, colo-
nial contentment, ministerial cordiality, and kingly
gratification, George the Second, in the plenitude
of health and ruddy old age, dropt dead, as suddenly
as if shot, without any previous indisposition. The
cause of so sudden extinction of life in an apparently
healthy man was accounted extraordinary among
physicians, — a bursting of the heart.* The public as-
tonishment was great, and the first effects astounding.

We have mentioned with approbation a well writ-
ten work entitled " Anecdotes of the Life of the Right
Hon. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham; and of the
principal Events of his Time, with his Speeches in Par-
liament." This modest publication without a name,
was evidently countenanced from the first edition,
by Earl Temple, and by his sister, the Dowager
Countess of Chatham, the first Lord Lyttleton,
Governor Poivna/l, and several other noblemen and
gentlemen. The nineteenth chapter opens thus :

" Unfortunately for the glory and interest of Great
Britain, on the 25th of October, 1760, the venerable

* A rupture of either ventricle of the heart is very rare, especially
when there was no violent muscular exertion, or mental rage. We
may, however, remark as a fact, that, in our medical books, there are
more instances of Germans dying suddenly from suppressed violent
passion, than of any other people. In phlegmatic habits, it is apt to
sink them into insanity.

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

George the Second died. As to the successor, the
effects of the wickedness of his advisers have been,
and are still, too deeply felt to be described in any
terms adequate to the injuries committed. Posterity,
in a subsequent age, when truth may be spoken, and
the motives of men laid open, will be astonished at
the conduct of their ancestors at this period." Leav-
ing opinions, let us return to facts.

When Frederic, Prince of Wales, died (in 1751),
he left behind a little fretful court where vegetated,
in a hot-bed of toryism, his son Prince George, ihe
future King of England. To this picture we must
add the figure of a Saxo-Gothic Princess Dowager
of Wales, smiling in her weeds with the hope of re-
taining under her entire influence this her eldest
son, that she might govern him as heretofore, after
he should become king. This is the woman whom
the indignant Junius called the Daemon of Discord,
who watched with a kind of providential malignity
over the work of her hands, to correct, improve, and
preserve it. " I consider her," says that caustic
writer, " not only as the original creating cause of
the shameful and deplorable condition of this coun-
try, but as a being whose operation is uniform and
permanent." *

The Earl of Waldegrave, Governor to Prince
George, informs us, that in the year 1755, i after
George the Second returned from Hanover, where he
went almost every year, he sent for the Prince of
Wales into his closet, to find out the extent of his

* Letter lxxxvii, 17th Jan. 1771, under the signature of Domitian,
recognised by Junius to Mr. Woodfall.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 29

political knowledge, to sift him in relation to Hano-
ver, and to caution him against evil counsellors ; that
the discourse was short, the substance kind and af-
fectionate, but the manner not quite gracious ; that
the Prince was flustered and sulky ; bowed, but
scarce made any answer; so the conference ended,
very little to the satisfaction of either party. The
judicious Lord Waldegrave tacks to the anecdote
this remark : — " Here his Majesty was guilty of a
very capital mistake ; instead of sending for the
Prince, he should have spoken firmly to the mother ;
told her, that as she governed her son, she should be
answerable for his conduct ; that he would overlook
what was past, and treat her still like a friend, if she
behaved in a proper manner ; but, on the other hand,
if either herself, her son, or any person influenced
by them, should give any future disturbance, she
must expect no quarter." To which, the noble
Governor subjoins this cutting sentence : — " He
might then have ended his admonition, by whisper-
ing a word in her ear, which would have made her
tremble, in spite of her spotless innocence." *

Mr. Nichols tells us, that Lord Camden, at that
time, Mr. Attorney General Pratt, said to his father,
(who was physician in ordinary to George the Sec-
ond,) — " I see, Doctor, already, that this will be a
weak and inglorious reign." That illustrious noble-
man and eminent lawyer, the intimate and dear friend
of Lord Chatham, lived to see and to feel his pre-
diction amply verified ; yet was this unpromising
Prince George destined to be the long-lived king of

* Lord Waldegrave's Memoirs, p. 51.

30 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

the Britons, the Irish, and of a great portion of the
Eastern and Western world; and to occupy, by his
misfortunes, an uncommonly large space in English
history.

The Leicester-House faction, or fragments of the
late systematized opposition, worked with redoubled
diligence after the death of the King in sowing the
seeds of ambition and mischief, which taking root in a
congenial soil produced a baleful fruit, that first poi-
soned the obstinate mind of George the Third, and
finally destroyed it. The evil had been engendering as
far back as the "glorious tj ear fifty -nine" ; when Par-
liament were unanimous in favor of all Pitt's war-
like measures, and the British arms everywhere vic-
torious. We need not say that he was the object of
envy and hatred. It followed of course in a mind
marked by a strong will and weak judgment. The
evil or inflamed eye was pained by Pitt's dazzling
brightness, and it was resolved to eclipse it by the
intervention of Lord Bute ; accordingly this Scotch
nobleman was pushed forward and promoted in so
extraordinary a manner, that he soon obtained the
odious name of Favorite.

There were very few signs of cordiality between
Frederic, Prince of Wales, and his German spouse.
He was not a man of talents, nor studious of the
British constitution. He was not a bad man. " He
amassed no private treasures, nor adopted any sinis-
ter advice with a view to obtain them ; he was not
insane, nor under the private tuition of the Prin-
cess." * This exalted lady had the reputation of

* Anecdotes of the Life of Chatham, chap. 8.

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

first-rate understanding, by those who knew her
not. Lord Waldegrave, who, from his station, must
have known her perfectly, says she was " one of
those moderate geniuses, who, with much dissimula-
tion, a civil address, an assenting conversation, and
few ideas of their own, can act with tolerable propri-
ety, as long as they are conducted by wise and pru-
dent counsellors." He adds that she retained all the
jealousy which divided the royal family during the
life of her husband ; dreading the power of the Duke
of Cumberland, and hating him as much as she feared
him." * The Favorite was thought to have a very
natural hatred towards " the hero of Cullo&cn" the
greatly beloved son of the late monarch. A curious
anecdote may illustrate all that we have said of
the cabal at Leicester-House. His Royal High-
ness the Duke of Cumberland invited his nephew
Prince George, when a youth of fourteen, to spend
a day at his residence, when he sought by various
means to gratify and amuse him. After showing him
pictures, books, and articles of curiosity, he took him
into a kind of epitomized armory, where were bows
and arrows, and halberts, elegant muskets and pis-
tols, and variously formed swords of different nations ;
one, more splendid than the rest, he took down to
show his nephew, on account of its richness and
brightness ; on drawing it out of its sheath, the boy
screamed as if he would go into fits ; fell on his
knees, and in an agony of tears, begged his uncle not
to kill him. The Duke stood petrified with astonish-
ment and mortification ; as w r ell he might. As soon

* Lord Waldegravc's Memoirs.

32 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

as the royal youth became sufficiently composed
from his fright, the Duke accompanied him home
to his mother ; but not without communicating,
the disagreeable occurrence, and inquiring whether
the terror of Prince George arose from a natural
timidity, or from his education and transient conver-
sation.

Although a child, I remember the period of the
death of King George the Second, and the very
high expectations entertained of his successor, '' the
British born King" We, in New England, w T ere
taught to believe that George the Third was a re-
markably sober, virtuous, and pious young man. On
his accession to the throne, our pulpits hailed him as
such ; and the University in this place, the oldest in
America, and justly deemed in that day the very
heart of New England, poured forth its condolence,
praises, gratulations, and expectations, in English
prose, and Greek and Latin verse, making a consid-
erable volume, which was presented to his sacred
Majesty by the colony agent, and most graciously
received.*

* The neat volume was entitled Pietas et Gratulatio Collegii
Cantabrigiensis apud Novanglos. Bostoni, Massachusettensium.
Typis J. Green & J. Russell. 4to. 1761.

The prefatory address to the young king was sufficiently high seasoned
to be relished by any of the Stuart race, if not by the last of the Tudors.*
The College availed itself of this apparently auspicious opportunity to ask
his Majesty to extend his royal bounty to help and encourage their infant
seminary. To which they received this courtly answer ; that " a Col-
lege capable of producing such a specimen of genius and learning,
stood in no need of help from England.'''' A brilliant spark, struck
out by flint and steel; — John Bull, and Jonathan; — an Episcopalian
and a Presbyterian ! The English government, since the accession of

* See Appendix, A.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 33

Whatever may have been said of the obduracy of
George the Third, or insinuated respecting his sin-
cerity, all must allow that his behaviour during his
youthful minority was morally correct. It is an
awkward, trying, and dangerous period to an heir
apparent or presumptive, roaming between daylight
and dark amidst enemies, under w r hich head we
class all flatterers. In this state of ambiguity not a
few have lost their way, from the Plantagenets to the
last of the Stuarts. Several expectant kings among
the British Princes have filled up this irksome space
with disgraceful dissipation. Their education has
been more strict and more military since the revolu-
tion. Yet it remains a question, whether the gov-
ernors and instructors of the princes of the House of
Brunswick surpassed the ancient Magi in the faculty
of teaching princes to instruct themselves, by means
of ingenious and happily adapted allegories, selected
from the unceasing operations of nature, discernible
every where in the economy of the mundane system,
and throughout lower creation. Instead of studying
the balance of power, the extent of George the Sec-
ond's political knowledge, those ancient moral phi-
losophers, made from the frame of visible nature, a
mirror for the government of a kingdom, and thus
gave wholesome lessons from the material world to
regulate the moral and political one. George the
Third appears, from his conduct towards America,
never to have been instructed in this book of wis-

George the Third, never heartily relished colonial precocity of talent,
w bich was discernible in this Little volume, and spoken of in that strum
in the London Reviews of 1701.

34 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

dom, written by the finger of nature herself; — the
irresistible tendency of intellectual and material
things, and the common operations of the human
heart, seem to have escaped his observation.

George, Prince of Wales, having no rakish seeds
to germinate w r ithin him, passed the trying period of
his youthful minority chiefly in the nursery of his
mother, and in the conversation of correct women ;
and in company of the Earl of Bute, from whom he
learnt princely behaviour, and acquired a portion of
that nobleman's Spanish stateliness and theatrical
manner. As a domestic man George the Third was
addicted to no vice, and swayed by no passion. He
was not a weak man. If his objects were little and
injudiciously chosen, no monarch, says Mr. Nichols,
ever displayed more dexterity in his choice of means
to obtain those objects. Nor can any thing be more
just than the sentiments of the same gentleman re-
specting the Princess Dowager, when he says, " The
mother of George the Third had formed her ideas
of sovereign power at the court of her father, and
she could never bring herself to be of opinion, that
sovereignty should be exercised in Great Britain in
a manner different from that in which she had seen
it exercised at her father's court. In Saxe-Gotha,
the sovereignty is property ; in Great Britain, it is
magistracy. There, the sovereign's personal wish-
es and opinions are to be obeyed, and he is his
own minister. In Great Britain the sovereign is to
choose for his ministers those whom he thinks most
qualified to advise measures beneficial to the coun-
try. If he does not approve of the measures they

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 35

recommend, he may remove his ministers and ap-
point others ; but whatever measures are carried
into effect, the advisers, ought not only to be re-
sponsible, but distinctly known, and recognised as
the advisers.* This is not an opinion, which has
been only theoretically adopted by those who have
treated of the English constitution ; it has been ex-
plicitly declared in parliament." f Yet George the
Third never adhered to it. Christina, the learned
Queen of Sweden, said that " the world was de-
ceived when it supposed that Princes are governed
by their ministers. However weak a Prince is, he
has always more power than his minister. Those
persons, said she, who pretend to govern Princes,
resemble the keepers of lions and tigers, who most
assuredly make these animals play the tricks they
wish them to play. At first sight, one would imag-
ine that the animals were completely subservient to
their keepers ; but, when they least expect it, a pat
of the claw, not of the gentlest kind, fells the keep-
ers to the ground, who then begin to find, that they
never can be perfectly certain that they have com-
pletely tamed the animals." Do not the history of
Cardinal Wolsey, and the threats of the King to im-
peach Lord North for his disgraceful American war,
justify the opinion of the philosophic Queen ?

* This is not the case in these United States, but directly the re-
verse ; here the President or Chief Magistrate is alone responsible,
and liable to impeachment, while the ministers, or heads of departments,
are not liable for any advice given or measures executed.

] See "Recollections and Reflections, Personal and Political, as
connected with Public Affairs, during the Reign of George the Third.
By John Nichols, Esq. member of the House of Commons, in the 15th,
16th, and 17th Parliament of Great Britain."

36 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

"When the Princess of Wales," says Mr. Nichols,
" came to the Court of England, she found the
B/itish Sovereign a very different character from
that which she had seen at Saxe-Gotha. She found
him controlled by his ministers, indulged in petty
gratifications, but compelled to submit to their opin-
ions on all important subjects. We cannot therefore
be surprised that she was disgusted with this ; and
that she ever after impressed upon her son, from his
early years, this lessson, — ' George, be King ! '
And this lesson seems to have influenced the King's
conduct through the whole of his life. Extreme ap-
prehension that his ministers or others might en-
croach upon his power, an earnest wish that he
might exercise his power personally, or, in other
words, that he might be his own minister, have, in a
very singular manner, marked his conduct during the
whole of his reign." *

As this was undoubtedly the case, how could it be
expected, that a young king so disposed, and so edu-
cated would retain for a prime minister such a rigidly
just and all-commanding personage as the Earl of
Chatham? How to get rid of him was the question.
His character was honorable, his abilities transcend-
ent, his integrity beyond suspicion, his private life
spotless, and his popularity beyond all example.

When George the Third came to the crown the
administration was in possession of the Pelham party,
much strengthened by its alliance with Pitt, and
popular from his successful conduct of the war. It
was perilous to attempt to change such an adminis-

* Nichols's Recollections and Reflections.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 37

tration ; yet the King and Lord Bute ventured upon
it, and, strange to relate, they succeeded.

Within six months after the death of George the
Second, it was deemed unfashionable in the first cir-
cles to speak in terms of much respect of the late
monarch, whose domestic character was triumphantly
contrasted with that of his chaste and pious grand-
son. War began then to be denounced as an anti-
christian practice. At length every victory was called
a bleeding and dangerous wound on the nearly
exhausted body of poor Britannia. Pitt's warlike
ambition, instead of being considered a national ben-
efit, was said to be draining to exhaustion the finan-
ces of the kingdom ; — in a word, that England was
in danger of ruin by her victories ; and this style of
talking became polite among lords and ladies. All
this gradually explained itself, by the discovery of
Lord Bute's early resolution to pull down, if possible,
the mighty Pitt, avIio stood like a lion in his path.
Directly on the death of the late King, Lord Bute
betrayed his intentions. " Scarcely was the ink dry
which had marked his name upon the council-book,
when, although no minister himself, yet he assumed
a magisterial air of authority, and began to give law
in the court ; and to show, not onlv with what con-
tempt he meant to treat the memory and conduct of
the deceased monarch, but his dislike of the mea-
sures which were then, and had for some time been
pursued ; and in order to affront the ministers and
the allied army, he invited to court, while the late
King lay dead in his palace, the only unpopular man
at that time in the kingdom [Lord George Sack-

38 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

ville], who but a few months before, had been de-
graded from his rank for disobedience of orders,
when in the service of his country." * But in spite
of the baleful influence of Bute, of the Princess
Dowager, and of their numerous hireling writers,
chiefly from beyond the Tweed, the illustrious com-
moner yet maintained his popularity. The Parlia-
ment was still with him. He stood erect, the pride
of the nation, and the dread of her enemies.

The renowned kingdom of France, composed of a
wonderful people, if not ruined on the ocean, was
driven to the very verge of a gulf leading to bank-
ruptcy, and that chiefly by the suddenly collected
energies of Great Britain and of these colonies,
wielded by the mighty hand of one man, too de-
crepit in body to mount a horse. Not but that
France had been, for a series of years, predisposed
to deep national disorders, having endured ignoble
depressions, according to the testimony of their own
writers, f

After twelve years of supine peace under the reign
of good Louis the Sixteenth, France was gradually
awakened by a happy influence from these far distant
regions, inhabited by the descendants of transplanted
Europeans, principally from an English stock. These
last were educated pretty generally in the belief that a
Frenchman, a Spaniard, a Papist, and the great

* History of the Minority, from the years 1762 to 1765, 4th edition,
London, 1776.

f See the History of the Private Life of Louis the Fifteenth. This
careless monarch died the same year that our first Congress assembled,
leaving his people little reason to boast of his virtue, energy, or military
force.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 39

enemy of mankind were consociated to destroy all
that was good in morals, holy in religion, or safe in
government.*

From between the years 1758 and 1762 France
was, in effect, conquered. She was so weak as
not to be able to stand alone ; and was therefore
compelled to seek the aid of degenerate Spain to
support her tottering steps. Through the mediation
of their common spiritual father the Pope, the
court of Madrid acceded to the plaintive request of
France ; and this led to a close and natural alliance
between the two Kings, or rather, three Kings of
France, Spain, and the Sicilies ; forming what was
called " the family compact," or family alliance of
the House or Bourbon ; which confederacy bound
them together by the triple cord of politics* kindred,
and religion. This famous league was made in De-
cember, 1761. Mr. Pitt had early information of the
design, and spoke of It in council. At length he dis-
covered the warlike preparations of Spain, and not-
withstanding her asseverations of peace, he was fully
satisfied of the intentions of the insidious court of
Madrid to co-operate with France in her existing

* During nearly two centuries, the people of Boston and of the
principal sea-ports in New England, paraded the effigies of the Pope
and the Devil, and in later times " the Pretender," through the streets,
and at night committed them to the flames. They continued this ad of
faith (auto de fe) every fifth of November from an early period in the
settlement of this country, until the French fleet arrived in the har-
bour of Boston, when Samuel Adams thought it was hardly so polite to
treat " our great and good allies," with this strange spectacle ; and
the populace submitted, as usual, to his opinion. The fact shows
our British education ; and also the first fruits of our emancipation
from their bigotry.

40 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

war with England ; and he spoke of it publicly, and
urged strongly the prudence of striking the first blow.

This treaty offensive and defensive sets forth,
that the motives of it were the ties of blood between
the Kings of France and Spain ; and the object to
give stability and permanency to these ties, which
naturally grow out of affinity and friendship ; and to
establish a solemn and lasting monument of the re-
ciprocal interest, which ought to be the basis of the
desires of the two monarchs, and of the prosperity of
their royal families. It contains twenty-eight arti-
cles. We record only three of them.

" First. Both Kings will, for the future, look upon
every power as their enemy that becomes the enemy
of either.

" Secondly. Their Majesties reciprocally guaranty
all their dominions in whatever part of the world they
be situated.

" Thirdly. The two Kings extend their guaranty
to the King of the two Sicilies, and infant Duke of
Parma, on condition that these two princes guaranty
the dominions of their Most Christian and Catholic
Majesties."

In modern times, did ever the head of the Roman
Catholic Church devise a stronger connexion be-
tween kingdoms than this triple tie of kindred, re-
ligion, and politics 1

Mr. Pitt said in council, that this was the very
time for humbling the whole House of Bourbon, — that
if this opportunity were let slip, it might never be
recovered. But as Pitt's great glory grew out of his
successful war with France, Lord Bute knew that a

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 4 J

peace would shear him of his beams, and diminish his
popularity.

Lord Temple supported his brother-in-law, the
minister, at the council-board, while the Duke of
Newcastle sat mute as a mummy. Pitt declared that
he should no longer sit witli them. Thanking the
ministers of the late King for their support, he said
" he was called to the ministry by the voice of the
people, to whom he considered himself accountable
for his conduct ; and that he would no longer re-
main in a situation, which made him responsible for
measures he was no longer allowed to guide."

When Mr. Pitt made this peremptory address in
the Council, Lord Granville, its President, replied
thus :

"I find the gentleman is determined to leave us;
nor can I say I am sorry for it, since he would oth-
erwise have certainly compelled us to leave him.
But if he be resolved to assume the right of advising
his Majesty, and directing the operations of the war,
to what purpose are we called to this council?
When he talks of being responsible to the people, he
talks the language of the House of Commons, and
forgets, that at this board, he is only responsible to
the King. However, though he may possibly have
convinced himself of his infallibility, still it remains
that we should be equally convinced before we can
resign our understandings to his direction, or join with
him in the measure he proposes." *

* See Annual Register, 1761, p. 44. Anecdotes of the Life of Lord
Chatham, and Thackeray's Life of him, vol. i. p. 592.

42 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

Lord Granville, highly spoken of by Dean Swift,
when Lord Carteret, was generally thought to envy
Pitt's fame and talents. He somewhat resembled
our great statesman in his oratory, austerity of man-
ner, and self-sufficiency, but in little else. Seeing
the wind and tide had turned at St. James's, it is not
improbable that he might have been selected by the
Favorite, as Hume Campbell was in the House of
Commons in 1755, to return some of Pitt's "eternal
invectives" The British Demosthenes annihilated
the latter ; and if he replied to the President of the
Council, I have never seen his reply. Lord Granville
had considerable weight of talents and of experience
in the preceding reign. He was haughty, intempe-
rate, and of an inflexible temper, with a short and
positive way of expressing it ; yet we should hardly
have believed that even he would dare to address
Pitt in such a bitter style of reproof. He said in the
latter part of the reign of George the Second, that
the King was surrounded by a faction, that he was a
prisoner on his throne, and that a different adminis-
tration ought to be formed for the interest of the
country, and the emancipation of the King. We
learn from these anecdotes that every sluice was
opened to sweep Pitt off his ground.

When George the Second died, the British Em-
pire, in all its vastness and territorial grandeur, was
hardly second to that of Rome. Its matchless com-
merce bound the world together by a golden chain,
while its laws utterly abjured slavery. Every
" liber homo" to use the words of Magna Charta,
was protected, encouraged, and controlled by the

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 43

operation of printed laws, and tried by juries com-
posed of his neighbours in open court, on the halls
of which was inscribed Patet omnibus.

Then all was vigor, animation, and industry. Rich-
es and glory flowed into Britain from every quarter
of the globe.

" Gods ! what a golden scene was this,
Of public fame and private bliss." *

From this general view of things, we can form
some idea of the rare talents, and extraordinary mer-
it of Mr. Pitt, which raised him in the view of a
grateful people to the highest pinnacle of popularity
at home, and fame abroad. Such was the state of
things when the old King died. The condition of
affairs was changed after his grandson reigned in his
stead. The first object seemed to be (he destruc-
tion of Mr. Pitt's great influence. In the defamatory
publications of the day (and they were beyond all
example numerous), the illustrious minister, and
all the old whigs, were sneeringly styled " Republi-
cans" an unpleasant denomination in a monarchy.
The press teemed with the lowest abuse. His life,
public and private, was sifted with a sort of diabolical
malignity. The successes of his administration were
depreciated, his few faults monstrously exaggerated ;
and this at a time when Mr. Burke said of him, —
" He revived the military genius of our people ; he
supported our allies ; he extended our trade ; he
raised our reputation ; he augmented our dominions ;
and on his departure from administration, left the
nation in no other danger than that which ever must

* Ode by E. Seymour Esq., M, P

44 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

attend exorbitant power, and the temptation which
may be to the invidious exertion of it. Happy-
had it been for him, for his sovereign;, and his country,
if a temper less austere, and a disposition more prac-
ticable, more compliant and conciliating, had been
joined to his other great virtues." *

Thus expatiates the copious Burke, without stop-
ping to consider, that he would have been no longer
the great William Pitt. "The want of 'these qual-
ities," adds the same writer, " disabled him from act-
ing any otherwise than alone. It prevented our enjoy-
ing the joint fruit of the wisdom of many able men,
who might mutually have tempered, and mutually
forwarded each other ; and finally, which was not
the meanest loss, it deprived us [the Rockingham
party] of his own immediate services."

On which we would remark, that nature cre-
ates monarchs even in the brute creation. Among
birds, the eagle acts alone, while doves crowd to-
gether in flocks. Among quadrupeds, the lion acts
alone, while sheep congregate, like doves, from con-
scious weakness.

While this baleful influence was operating in En-
gland upon that class of the community which in-
cludes the voters, and comprehends their representa-
tives, hypocrisy was preaching to the young monarch
against the antichristian practice of war, depicting
the horrors of its multiform cruelties, and contrasting
the barbarous custom with the evangelical spirit of
peace. The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Seeker,
was so far taken in by the then fashionable court-

* Annual Register for 1761, p. 47.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 45

cant, that he, good man, exulting in the pious dispo-
sition of the young " defender of the faith," visited
him very often, and, for a considerable time, really
believed that he should become his most influential
counsellor, if not spiritual director. At court, you
would have thought that the Princess Dowager of
Wales, Lord Bute, the Dukes of Bedford and of
Newcastle, Lords Granville, Sandwich, and Barring-
ton, Bub Doddington, Charles Jenkinson,* and Jerry
Dyson were not far from the threshold of the tab-
ernacle. We dare not add to these, the name of
Henry Fox, that " piece of pure and distinguished
virtue," lest the reader should suspect that the whole
we have said is mere romance. It is true, howev-
er, that this old friend and schoolfellow of Pitt, was
at that time devoted to Lord Bute ; but was of a
character that disdained even the appearance of re-
ligion. Whether so or not, they certainly rendered
that sort of talk fashionable at court. It caught in
subordinate circles, and the contagion spread to suc-
cessive ones, until it met the inferior distant echoes
of the bribed electors, and the abused multitude ;
and thus, from an imported taint, the whole lump
became leavened, fit for the plastic hand of the sec-
ond-sighted chief juggler.

Mr. Pitt saw, and clearly understood all these
movements, and had a perfect idea of the construc-
tion and principles of their most powerful engines,
and retired from them with a dignity, disinterested-
ness, and purity of character, which cast, by the con-

* Mr. Jenkinson was Private Secretary to Lord Bute, known of late
years by the title of Lord Liverpool.

46 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

trast, a deep shade upon that of the very rich Sir
Robert Walpole. It is very difficult to conceive how
the King could have done otherwise than make
Pitt a peer. Some have said that it was cunningly
and mischievously done to destroy his popularity.
If so, it was doing a very natural and indeed an una-
voidable thing ; and if it had in any degree that effect,
the great man might have said in the words of his
admired author, — " If these things be necessities,
let's meet them like necessities;" he did so.*

* " Clxrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea" written by Charles
Johnstone, a satirical publication in 1760, and announced as " a dispas-
sionate distinct account of the most remarkable transactions of the
present times all over Europe." In this popular work, though there be
now and then ideal touches beyond the simple truth of character, yet
every anecdote has its foundation in truth. Facts have here only the
thin drapery of romance. See, to our purpose, the dialogue between
the Jew broker, Aminadab, and Van Hogen, the grand pensioner of
Holland, who, inveighing bitterly against the English, threatened to de-
clare war. The wary Jew, just come over from England, where he had
long resided, tells him — " Matters are now changed. We have got a
manager, who neither drinks, nor games, nor keeps running horses, nor
whores, nor lives above his private fortune, and therefore has not such
pressing demands for money, as used to make our negotiations go on
so smoothly with others formerly. There is a perverseness of the
people in power at present.'''' Van Hogen. " Will they not take
money ? " Aminadab. " No, indeed ; nor does the boldest of us know
how to offer it with safety, it was rejected with such indignant rage
the last time. I have seen the day, and that not very long since,
when half the sum would have done twice as much. Matters have
strangely altered of late." Van Hogen. " What shall we do ? Is the
whole court corrupted by his example ? Are they all infected with
such a strange madness ? " Aminadab. " No, it is not gone so far as
that yet ; and it is to be hoped that the example of a few will not be
able to do so much ; and that when the novelty of this humor wears off
a little, it will go out of fashion insensibly, and things return to their
old course. This is supposing the worst, that the engines now at
work to overturn this new set, should miscarry."

It may be said, — Why cite a professed satirist in an historical work ?
We reply, — Why quote Juvenal or Swift ?

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

We behold him now Earl of Chatham, into
which title he sunk, as some thought, the great
name of William Pitt. But the voice of evanes-
cent public opinion is not the voice of History. We
in this New World, or, to speak with precision, in
these United States, have but an imperfect idea of
the venality of administrations in certain kingdoms in
Europe. Contending parties and angry debaters
here talk of corruption where it never existed. It
reigned and triumphed during a greater part of the
life of George the Second ; and although Lord
Chatham called for and expended vast sums of
money, he never enriched himself or friends. It was
all for the nation, for the increase of its power,
glory, and example.

Although Chatham nobly led, all his old friends did
not follow. Not a few of the opposition or minority
did worse than hesitate ; for after Lords Chatham,
Temple, and Rockingham recoiled from the influence
of Lord Bute and his associates, the opposition
showed how much their patriotism was worth. To
show the value of it, we cite a paragraph from " The
History of the Minority, during the Years 1762-'3-'4
and '5." " A point so highly interesting to the sub-
ject (as general warrants) a true patriot would not
have suffered to remain unnoticed. But the fact is,
the minority had neither true patriotism, true virtue,
nor common honesty ; for they now showed themselves
to be hypocrites to the cause, impostors upon the
public, and traitors to each other. No party ever
was so truly contemptible in such a very short time.

48 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

"It soon became obvious to all mankind, that the
sole purpose of this sham pursuit of liberty was the
possession of lucrative offices. Lord Chatham, see-
ing of what stuff they were made, kept aloof. He
did not attend Parliament during the whole session.
Lord Temple declared to the Duke of Newcastle
and others of the party, that if the only end proposed
by opposition, was, singly and exclusively, the pos-
session of the great offices, for the sake of the sala-
ries of them ; if nothing was intended for the public ;
and if they would neither propose nor support any
motion or measure, for the true security of liberty, and
the real advantage of the people, he would not lend
himself as a cover to any such principles." * Op-
position was now entirely at an end. The venal part
of the minority found themselves detected. Those
colors under which they nattered themselves their
designs would have been concealed, were now with-
drawn ; and they appeared like a fugitive corps, with-
out clothing, arms, or officers. For some time they
wandered in this desolate and disconsolate plight ;
and at length finding that no party would accept of
them, they became quite broken-hearted, and in a
short time were almost totally dispersed.

" Such was the fate of the late minority : a party
which had been originally formed for the best and
most laudable purposes, namely, to resist the powers
and measures of a mischievous favorite ; and when
he had been defeated, to defend the constitution and
the liberties of the subject, by opposing and censuring
all arbitrary violations of ministers. These w r ere the

* History of the Minority, chap. xxi.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 49

objects of opposition. The first was in part ac-
complished by the North Briton. But out of that
victory arose the second, which was scandalously de-
serted by the body of the party ; who, acting wholly
upon the temporizing principle of making their peace
at St. James's as soon as possible, in order to lose
no opportunity of getting into office, were never in
earnest in the cause of liberty, and were continually
checking every measure, and betraying every man
who obstructed their selfish and interested views.
No party had ever such admirable ground to go upon ;
and had the men been but half as good as the cause,
no administration, however supported, could have
withstood them. The influence of the favorite, to-
gether with the whole fabric of his system, must have
been destroyed for ever." *

That Pitt richly merited the highest honors a king
of Great Britain could bestow, few can doubt who
duly consider the life, conduct, and extraordinary
character of that great man. Yet his acceptance of
a peerage with a corresponding pension was cried
out against as a flagrant desertion of the people's
cause, and abandonment of his former principles:.
Those who were called Lord Bute's hireling writers
took advantage of it, and heaped abuse upon the new-
made peer with a view to destroy his popularity. A
number of these were employed, at a very great ex-
pense, to beat down the towering spirit of the great
orator and patriot. But the abuse was not confined
wholly to them. Some envious peers as well as

* History of the Minority, chap. xxi. 4th edition. London, 1?<;<i.

50 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

commoners were far from discountenancing the ef-
fort for reducing Lord Chatham to a level with
themselves. A strong impediment to these designs
was the existence of a small but nobly patriotic
band in Parliament, men of great w r eight of char-
acter, such as Temple, Rockingham, Camden, and
Burke. Yet the young, inexperienced, and ill-advised
monarch took the resolution to remove this obstacle,
and, with that view, actually ventured to dissolve the
great council of the nation in the year 1761.

From that inauspicious day, George the Third
might date the commencement of his unhappiness,
and Great Britain her manifold disasters ; some of
which she yet feels and deplores, while we Ameri-
cans, since separated from her, have no reason to
bewail the event, seeing it led to our independence.

A new Parliament was about convening. A few
weeks before it met, foreign agents, and certain
British sub-agents, were busily employed in preparing
for the purchase of peace from England. The
ground had been prepared before the seed arrived ;
and the rich Duke of Bedford was about embarking
for France, as Lord Bute's representative, while the
bulk of the nation were very far from being tired of
the war, as success followed the British colors in
every quarter of the world.

The first manifestation of the tainted condition of
things was discernible at Head-Quarters, in doubling
the number of attendants and servants at the pal-
ace, and in multiplying donatives beyond all former
example.* Twenty-five thousand pounds were is-

* A member of Parliament was, at that time, a turnspit in the king's
kitchen. We assert it on the authority of Mr. Burke.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 5 \

sued in one day in bank notes of one hundred
pounds each, when the only stipulation was — " Give
us your vote" Loyal addresses from various quar-
ters were presented to the King, thanking him for his
gracious efforts to make peace with France and
Spain. One from the venerable University of Oxford
tells his Majesty that " he was ordained, by the pe-
culiar favor of Providence, to repair the ruins and
ravages of a destructive war." As if England was
madly rushing to ruin, by her uninterrupted victories
over the forces of the united powers of the House
of Bourbon. Hence the necessity of an immediate
peace with a prostrate enemy !

We are informed from respectable authority, that
" the addresses to the King, which followed the
parliamentary approbation of the preliminary articles
of peace, were obtained by means equally dishonor-
able and corrupt. There was one instance where
the seal of a corporation was forged, and more than
one where it was feloniously obtained." * Lord Bute*
tampered with the city, which refused to address
although the sum of fourteen thousand pounds was
offered to complete Black Friars' bridge. This offer
they disdained, and after finishing it themselves, they
dedicated that noble structure to the Earl of Chat-
ham, by an highly complimentary inscription. The
authority just cited informs us that " no means were
left untried every w r here to obtain addresses. The
Lord-Lieutenants had begging letters sent them to
use their influence, and live hundred pounds secret
service-money were added to each letter. The

* Anecdotes of the Earl of Chatham

52 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

sum of five hundred pounds was the notorious price
of an address. Some addresses cost a much larger
sum, according to the importance and magnitude of
the place from which the address was obtained." It
was remarked that during the time Lord Bute held
his public situation as prime minister, no favorite ex-
ercised the power of the crown with more insolence.
Can imagination conceive any thing more irritating,
more enraging to such a lofty spirit as that of Chat-
ham, than seeing the work of his glorious life, the re-
sult of his matchless labors, pulled down before his
eyes, by an infamous and inadequate peace ; the
solid pyramid of his fame dilapidated, not by the
chance or fortune of war, but deliberately, and its
materials sold to Frenchmen, Spaniards, and people
nearer home ?

However, we search in vain for the clear, uncon-
taminated history of those dark transactions, in the
unbroken series of cause and effect The English,
with all their boasted freedom of the press, dare not
publish the whole truth respecting their Kings,
Queens, and Princesses.* The best histories of Rome
were not written by natives of " the Eternal City."
As it regards England, we pick the truth up here
and there from anecdotes, memoirs, daily and

* Whoever wishes to be more particularly informed, let him read
the examination of Dr. Musgrave at the bar of the House of Commons
in 1762, and let him notice the words of Sir William Blackstone in the
course of that examination, as recorded in the twenty-second chapter,
volume first, of the Anecdotes and Speeches of the Earl of Chatham,
the seventh edition, corrected, London, 1810 ; which, though anonymous,
was evidently published from the first under the sanction of the Pitt
and Grenville family, and made, in a manner, the basis of Thackeray's
Life of Lord Chatham.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 53

weekly publications, such being, in the opinion of
the great Lord Somers, the most faithful pictures
of " the bent and genius of the age, the sense of
parties, and sometimes the voice of the nation."
Boast not, Englishmen, of your liberty of the press,
while you have such partial histories as those of
Lord Clarendon, David Hume, and the Annual Reg-
ister, though conducted by Edmund Burke, that
very able and intrepid son of liberty.* If you com-
pare the few first-rate British histories and annals
with the memoirs of some of their eminent men who
had directed them to be buried till thirty years after
their decease, — time enough for their children and
probably grandchildren to be out of the reach of re-
sentment, you will learn the truth of our assertion.
We predict, however, that some bold and persevering

* A very valuable and impartial history of the American Revolution
was written by the Rev. William Gordon, D. D., an Englishman ; who
resided about twelve years in Massachusetts, and had access to the
best authorities, including that of Washington, Greene, Knox, and
Gates, and the journals of Congress and of the Legislatures of the sev-
eral States. He injudiciously returned to England, there to print his
interesting history. He deemed it prudent to submit his manuscript to
a gentleman learned in the law, to mark such chapters and passages as
might endanger prosecution, when the lawyer returned it with such a
large portion expurgated as to reduce about four volumes to three.
The author being too aged and too infirm to venture upon a voyage
back to America, and too poor withal, he submitted to its publica-
tion in a mutilated state; and thus the most just and impartial history
of the American war, and of the steps that led to it, on both sides of
the Atlantic, was sadly marred, and shamefully mutilated. My author-
ity is from my late venerable friend John Adams, the President of
these United States, who perused Gordon's manuscript when he was
our Minister at the Court of London, and from my own knowledge,
having been shown a considerable portion of the History before the au-
thor left this country to die in his own, and having corresponded with
him till near the close of his long life.

54 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

searcher on that or this side the Atlantic will find
pearls, and diamonds, and precious stones in the dirt,
and string them together and therewith make a chaplet
for the brow of Truth. The author of the work
we have so often commended says, — " There is such
a delicacy prevails in England, greater than in some
arbitrary monarchies, concerning the conduct of the
Royal Family, that truth of them is usually suppress-
ed until it is forgotten. The justice of history is
thereby perverted ; and the constitution, in this im-
portant point, is literally and efficiently destroyed." *
Even the very bold and prophet-like Junius when he
addresses his Sovereign in the firm but honest lan-
guage of reprehension, does it in the studied style of
respect. You see throughout his famous letter, the
enthroned King, and the conscientious, presaging
Magus of a subject, but void of that indelicate, sa-
cerdotal objurgation used by certain French preachers
to their monarchs.

When Lord Chatham resigned, the Earl of Egre-
mont took his place ; a nobleman well suited to the
views of the Earl of Bute. On the sudden death of
Egremont, Lord Bute came in Prime Minister almost
of course. When these changes took place, I well
remember the unfavorable impression it made re-
specting the real character of the young monarch
in these New England colonies. It excited doubts
of his wisdom, and created suspicions of his ultimate
views, as Pitt was a personage almost worshipped in
America.

When Pitt retired from office he was comparative-
ly poor. But when Bute was finally constrained to

* Anecdotes of Lord Chatham.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 55

retire, he was very rich. The question at that
time among the people was, — Where did his riches
come from? Peace, be still! Honor and.increas-.
ing fame followed Chatham ; suspicions and bitter
execrations accompanied Bute, — whether right or
wrong, whether just or unjust, we pretend not to
decide. The dark cave of favoritism affords us, dis-
tant and inexperienced republicans, but little light.
It really does not appear that Lord Bute was a very
bad man, with a heart corrupted by the love of
money, and intoxicated by the splendors of high sta-
tion, or that he had a great desire to enrich his
children, whom he always kept at a great and chil-
ling distance.

Lord Bute appears to have been a man better
fitted by nature, education, and habit for President
of the Royal Society than Prime Minister of Great
Britain. He had an extraordinary appearance of
wisdom in his looks and manner of speaking ;
whether the subject were serious or trifling, he was
equally pompous, slow, and sententious. His deliv-
ery in Parliament was so very slow, solemn, and mo-
notonous, that when the brilliant Charles Townsend
heard him the first time in the House of Lords, he
exclaimed — Minute Guns ! From all which it may
be inferred that the Earl of Bute was one of those
characters spoken of by Lord Bacon, who are con-
stantly upon the stretch to make superficies appear
solids.*

* It has been said of Lord Bute, that " He was reserved, inward,
and darksome. Clandestine without concealment, sad without sor-
row, domestic without familiarity, haughty without elevation ; nothing-

56 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

Directly on Lord Bute's being made commissioner
of the treasury, in 1762, came out the first number of
the Briton, written by Dr. Smollet, praising his Lord-
ship to the skies, with occasional sarcasms and sly

great, nothing noble having ever marked his character, or illustrated
his conduct in public or private life. Reducing every thing to his own
ideas, that standard of littleness, that mint of falsity. A frigid friend,
a mean enemy. Stubborn without firmness, and ambitious without
spirit. Ungenerous without any very extraordinary note of avarice ;
but rather so through the poverty of head and heart. Bookish without
learning ; as insensible and unconversable on the great subjects of lite-
rature, as one deaf and dumb when questioned on a concert of music,
A dabbler in the fine arts without grace or taste. A traveller through
countries without seeing them, and totally unacquainted with his own.
In a dull ungenial solitude, muddling away what leisure he may have
from false politics and ruinous counsels, in stuffing his port-folios with
penny prints and pretty pictures of colored simples, those gazing-
traps of simpletons, and garnishing his knicknackatory with mechanical
toys, baubles, and gimcracks, or varying his nonsense with little
tricks of chemistry ; while all these futile puerilities have been rendered
still more futile by the gloom of a solemn visage, ridiculously exhibiting
the preternatural character of a grave child. Bagatelles these, which
it would doubtless be impertinent, illiberal, and even uncharitable to
mention, were it not for the apprehension of his having inspired this
most unroyal taste for trifles where it could not exist, but at the ex-
pense of a time and attention, of which the nation could not be robbed
without capital detriment to it ; a circumstance this, that must draw
down a ridicule upon his master, not to be easily shaken off, and as
much more hurtful to a prince than a calumny of a graver nature, as
contempt is ever more fatal to government than even fear or hatred.
[The readers of the malapert Peter Pindar can best judge of this.]
Too unhappily, alas ! for this nation, chance had thrown this egregious
trifler into a family [that of Frederic, Prince of Wales,] whom his do-
mestic streights had favorably disposed towards him. How he main-
tained and unproved his footing into a pernicious ascendant, is surely
beneath curiosity.

" As to the royal pupil, who by a much misplaced confidence, fell
under his management at the tender age of susceptibility of all im-
pressions, it was not well possible for him to prevent a deep-rooted
partiality for a choice manifestly not made by him, but for him. In raw,

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

reflections on the late King, and copious abuse of
Mr. Pitt. This was soon followed by the celebrated
North Briton, written by several hands. This sar-
castic production attacked not only Lord Bute, but
the King's mother, with low abuse of the Scotch as

inexperienced, unguarded youth, practised upon by an insidious study
of his inclinations, not to rectify, but to govern him by them ; captivated
by an unremitting attention to humor and perpetuate the natural bent
of that age to the lighter objects of amusement ; instituted to an im-
plicit faith in the man who littered his head with trifles, and, unable to
corrupt his heart, only hardened it like his own against the remonstran-
ces of true greatness, while warping his understanding with the falsest
notions of men and things, and especially of maxims of state, of which
himself never had so much as an elementary idea ; thus delivered up to
such a tutor, how could the disciple possibly escape such a combination ?
What of essentially wise or magnanimous could he learn from such a
pedlar in politics and manners ? No one can impart what himself
never had. Honor, gratitude, dignity of sentiment, energy of sincerity,
comprehensiveness of views, were not in him to inculcate. Obstinacy
under the stale disguise of firmness, the royalty of repairing wrong by
persisting in it, the plausible decencies of private life, the petty morali-
ties, the minutenesses of public arrangements; the preference of dark
juggle, mystery, and low artifice, to the frank, open spirit of govern-
ment ; the abundant sufficiency of the absence of great vices, to atone
for the want of great virtues ; a contempt of reputation, and especially
that execrable absurdity in the Sovereign of a free people, the neglect of
popularity, were all that the hapless pupil could possibly learn from
such a preceptor." — " All prejudice then apart, mark in him, to his
Prince a tutor without knowledge, a minister without ability, a favorite
without gratitude ; the very anti-genius of politics ; the curse of
Scotland ; the disgrace of his master ; the despair of the nation ; and
the disdain of history." *

This portrait, painted with Dutch exactness, feature by feature,
without the least caricature, explains what long puzzled me, namely,
the silence of Junius, and of Lord Chatham in regard to Bute.
They doubtless considered him beneath the dignity of history or ora-
tory. Thus animals escape the hunter because they are not worth the
powder and shot.

When Lord Bute became Prime Minister, the Scotch, generally,
were elated beyond expression. The Jacobites all flocked to court,

* See a note in vol. I. chap. xxiv. of Anecdotes and Speeches of the Earl of Chatham.

58 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

a people. Its fire was so intense and well directed
to its object, that it soon demolished the slight works
of the Briton, whose fierce antagonist held on its
way rejoicing until it attained its 45th number, when
it was checked by a prosecution. The author of
this far-famed number w r as found to be Colonel John
Wilkes, an English gentleman, of a character not
easily described nor readily understood by the citi-
zens of our young Republic, as we are yet republicans
of the ancient Roman stamp, while the luxurious
Englishmen in the blaze of fashion, are Corinthians.
The personages more particularly aggrieved by the
satirical North Briton were blinded by a rage which
was rather of a feminine than of a masculine char-
acter, and which precipitated them into several very
serious errors and many consequent mortifications.
The first steps in the prosecution of Wilkes were
illegal, the subsequent ones imprudent, and the whole
procedure, from beginning to end, undignified. This
irregular procedure, being exposed and exaggerated
by the opposition in their new Parliament, threw the
whole country into a flame, and afforded to the
whole w r orld (with the exception of these thirteen
colonies) an astonishing instance of the power of the
people, when the executive part of the government
oversteps the sacred boundaries of the constitution.
Through the medium of the press and the speeches
in Parliament, the people were made to understand
the question, and they took John Wilkes under their

overjoyed to see a Stuart so near the throne. Previously to forming a
Tory administration, the Favorite dismissed that excellent minister Mr.
Legge, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the greatly esteemed friend
of Lord Chatham. Junius speaks of his dismissal in terms of disgust.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 59

protection ; in which, if not applauded, they were not
discouraged by characters of the highest rank of sub-
jects. This, taken altogether, at length constituted
that sort of adoption which astonished all Europe,
and occasioned even the democrats of New Eng-
land to stare at each other with amazement ; for
Wilkes had but little weight of moral character,
was not gifted with mental talents of the first class,
and was void of the chief powers of oratory. But
then his abilities were respectable, his courage un-
daunted, his perseverance surprising, and his gen-
tlemanlike good-humor exhaustless.

While the people and their leaders were magnify-
ing this favored child of fortune, the populace were
taught to believe that the learned Lord Mansfield,
who sat at the head of the judiciary, was an officer
dangerous from his arbitrary principles and alleged
entire subserviency to the crown ; and that his ele-
vated countryman, Lord Bute, was in conspiration
fast destroying the liberties of England. We pre-
tend not — we presume not to weigh such a vir
ponderosus as William Murray, Lord Mansfield. I
saw the ruins of his habitation, with sorrow and in-
dignation on a second exacerbation of popular de-
lirium, in 1780.

In the year 1768 the capital of the British Empire
exhibited a singular spectacle. Our countryman,
Dr. Franklin, says of it, in a letter dated London,
April 1768, to his son in America, " It is really ex-
traordinary to see an outlaw, an exile,* of bad per-
sonal character, not worth a farthing, coming over

* When prosecuted for his libellous No. 45, Wilkes fled to France.

gO PRELIMINARY VIEW.

from France, set himself up as a candidate for the
capital of the kingdom, miss election only by being
too late in his application ; and immediately carry it
for the principal county, [Middlesex, which includes
London.] The mob, spirited up by numbers of
different ballads sung or roared in every street, and
requiring gentlemen and ladies of all ranks, as they
passed in their carriages, to shout Wilkes and Liber-
ty ! marking the same words on all their coaches
with chalk, and the number 45; and on every door
in London, and for more than fifty miles in the
country ! "

In the following month, May 1768, the Doctor
again writes, — " Even this capital, the residence of the
King, is now a daily scene of lawless riot and con-
fusion ; mobs patrolling the streets at noonday ;
some knocking all down that will not roar out Wilkes
and Liberty ; courts of justice afraid to give judg-
ment against him ; coal-heavers and porters pulling
down the houses of coal-merchants, that refuse to
give them more wages ; sailors unrigging all outward
bound ships, and suffering none to sail till merchants
agreed to raise their pay ; watermen destroying
private boats, and threatening bridges, [and this
under the guns of the tower ;] soldiers firing among
the mobs and killing men, women, and children." —
" The scenes have been horrible. London was
illuminated two nights running at the command of
the mob, for the success of Wilkes in the Middlesex
election. The second night exceeded any thing of
the kind ever seen here. Those who refused to
illuminate had their windows destroyed."

PRELIMINARY VIEW.

These outrages in London described by Dr. Frank-
lin,* exceeded, far exceeded any riot that ever
occurred in these North American Colonies. The
destruction of the King's vessel, the Gaspee, at
Rhode Island in 1772; the wasting the cargoes of
Tea in Boston harbour, to prevent its landing, and
of course obviating an inextricable difficulty, were
conducted with regularity, order, stillness, and marks
of deliberation, more like the service of a detachment
of marines than the acts of a mob. Compare the ter-
rific conflagrations, in what were called Lord George
Gordon's mobs, when they destroyed Lord Mans-
field's house, library, and manuscripts, with the
destruction of the furniture of Governor Hutchinson
in Boston, and a few others in America, and we
need not blush for our popular character when con-
trasted with that of the London populace in 1780.f

In those tumultuary times in England, the throne
itself was not assailed as in the case of Charles the
First, and since in France. The discontent arose

* See his Memoirs.

f During the revolutionary period, not a single individual lost life
or limb by a mob, nor did any one suffer death in any of the New
England Colonies or States for his political sentiments. The ludicrous
mob-punishment of tar and feathers, so greatly misrepresented, was
perpetrated on certain informers against the smugglers, and on them
alone ; and these by sailors and their associates, all of that class of
people. In the midst of high popular excitement, while Boston was a
British garrison, a British captain and a guard of his soldiers, on duty
at the Custom House, were attacked by a gang of young persons, first
with snow-balls and then with bits of ice, when the soldiers fired, and
killed and wounded several who were not in the affray. Instead of
being instantly massacred, they were tried by a Boston jury, by men
who considered the Britisli soldiers as so many locusts sent to destroy
them, and acquitted, as acting in self-defence and upon duty. This
precious anecdote speaks volumes in the ear of candor.

62 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

from a disregard to the English constitution. When
the Princess Dowager of Wales came to England,
she found the British Sovereign a very different
character, and the court of St. James a very different
coterie from that in which she had been educated at
Saxe-Gotha. She saw that George the Second was
controlled by his ministers, and compelled to submit
to their opinions on all important subjects. The
comparison disgusted her, and she resolved to make
the court of her husband, or of her son, should he
attain the crown, as near like that of her father as
possible. She strove to make the court of London
like the miniature court of Saxe-Gotha.

Fool that I was to think imperial Rome
Like Mantua ! *

There was no wish to change the form of the
government, nor to encroach on the legal preroga-
tives of the crown as established at the revolution ;
but there was an extreme jealousy and discontent
arising from occurrences in the administration of it.
The public had been greatly disappointed. They
expected more from their young, inexperienced King,
than such a man with such an education could possi-
bly perform. Had he been a King John, or a Harry
the Eighth, the spirit of the times would have reme-
died the evil at once. But the Third George was a
moral man. After the strictest sect of his religion,
he lived a Pharisee ; and therefore respectable in
the eyes of his two Universities and of the holy
catholic church, with a constitutional abhorrence of

* Urbem quam dicunt Romam, Meliboge, putavi
Stultus ego huic nostree similem. Virg.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. (53

popery bordering on bigotry. In every thing, even
in religion, he was a staunch churchman, stubborn
as a rock ; yet, though slow and cold in toleration, he
never countenanced persecution.

At the distance of three thousand miles of clear
ocean, objects in Britain seem to us, through our
camera obscnra, different from what they appear to
those islanders themselves. At the time spoken of,
we were a part of the same realm ; a very loyal
people, magnifying the good, and feeling none of the
evil complained of in England. We felt no great
solicitude or interest in the admission, or expulsion
of John Wilkes from their parliament. Yet we saw
with surprise the change of sentiment respecting
the King and his court. If any one will take the
pains to read the elaborate accounts of the corona-
tion and the nuptial ceremonies of King George the
Third with a German Princess, in the year 1761,
and notice the almost adoration expressed of those
exalted personages ; and mark with what pride and
rapture the minute details of those gorgeous cere-
monies were received, relished, and prolonged by
the people of London ; and contrast them with the
state of affairs, and with the feelings of the same
people a few years afterwards, he will perceive an
altered state of things, and a great change in the
public sentiment, without waiting for us to express it
in words. We would only remark, that if we com-
pare the general sentiment of the British nation
during the three last years of George the Second,
when Pitt was at the helm of state, with that of his
grandson, under the management of Lord Bute, we

g4 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

shall hardly feel surprise that, even in these far distant
colonies, the character of the young monarch was
shaken and manifestly impaired by the circumstan-
ces of the peace. We grieved to see some of
the most valuable islands in the West Indies that
were conquered from France and Spain, restored to
them. We rejoiced with wonder on finding that
Canada was retained, while the island of Cuba, that
Great Britain of the Western world, was given up
to the conquered. But the Earl of Chatham was
not consulted on the articles of peace ; and they
who made it, considered only their present advantage.
If very many people in England have confounded
John Wilkes, with his cause, it is no great wonder
that we in America have not always separated them.
It comports with our design to speak in a cursory
manner of both in this place ; and more particularly
hereafter. He was a man who had not quite moral
character enough to excite great esteem and respect,
yet sufficient talent and education, honor and manners,
to make him an object of fear and great force in the
hands of the powerful whig-party which upheld him.
His was that mixed and middle character which civil
revolutions call for. In that tumultuary condition of
affairs, in the early part of the reign of George the
Third, John Wilkes was made the principal figure.
There is yet another reason for introducing him to
our readers, I mean the intercourse between him
and the great Unknown, the terrific Junius, who
wrote to him several private letters, which I myself
consider equal to any thing that has fallen from the
pen of Junius; — not in polish or in the flowers of

•

PRELIMINARY VIEW. (J5

rhetoric, but in depth of thought, knowledge of the
human heart, and w r onderful tact in the management
of a froward character, which we believe did not
appertain to any two men of that day. We shall
speak of this political meteor hereafter, and occa-
sionally ; and shall only remark now, that the saga-
cious Junius enlisted him into his service. He
considered him the very man whom the able and in-
trepid band of whigs needed to co-operate with them
in exorcizing the evil spirit behind the throne. To
cover the here and there dark spots in the private,
rakish character of the spirited Wilkes, they con-
spired with the times to inflate him to a size and
shape that was frightful to the court, astonishing to
the world, and must have been, now and then, laugh-
able to himself. The English people, who, in point
of national character, stand between the French and
the Dutch, were taught to believe, that John Wilkes
was the devoted and sworn champion of their dear-
est rights and privileges ; that he and they would
sink or swim together; and that he was prose-
cuted and then persecuted by the crown, in a great
measure, on their account. They were wrought up
to a firm belief that their danger originated from the
remaining foreign leaven of the Leicester-House
secret and irresponsible cabinet, then fermenting in
the new court of their inexperienced and deluded
King. Under these impressions and apprehensions,
their resentment became terrible, and produced the
riots we have already mentioned. The storm which
" the daemon of discord " had raised to drown this
idol of the people failed to overwhelm him. He

66 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

floated conspicuously on the top of every wave, while
the monarch, his family, and " his friends " felt the
appalling force of the refluent one. Nor was this
the sole cause of the commotion. The thundering
voice from the press commenced its re-action ; and
had that champion of the malcontents possessed a pri-
vate and social character as pure as that of Mr. Pitt,
or Sir George Saville, he and his cause combined
might have gone far towards driving the native King,
in disgust, to his electoral dominions. But Wilkes
was of a strangely mixed character. If he somewhat
resembled Richardson's Lovelace, his conduct, now
and then, brings to our recollection the Roman
Regulus. He could feel, think, and act like a Spar-
tan general and, on the same day, like a rake. He
delighted to walk the streets of London in full dress,
and loved dearly greetings in the market-place.
Thus he united greatness of mind with a pitiful
vanity.* With the most insinuating address and as-
senting manners and speech, he united inflexible
bravery. Being a man of pleasure without fortune
to support it, he panted to rise above his station, and
resolved to make, some way or other, a conspicuous
figure ; and he succeeded, to admiration.

Mr. Wilkes had very favorable opportunities for
an excellent education, first in London, and after-
wards at Leyden, then in greater reputation among

* I had some personal knowledge of this champion of the people's
rights, having had letters of introduction to him in the year 1775, when
he was Lord Mayor of London. I went directly from Dr. Fothergill's
in Harpur Street to wait on his Lordship at the City Mansion-House.
What a contrast,— the simplex munditiis of the one, and the peacockism
of the other !

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 67

the Whigs than either Oxford or Cambridge, and
distinguished also about this time, as the scene of
education of the Honorable Charles Townsend, the
Duke of Richmond, Akenside, Dyson, and one of the
sons of Lord Bute, and several Russian and German
Princes. If in after life, as a man, he trod in the im-
pure and dangerous paths of pleasure with associates
beneath him, he entertained and heartily relished
sound constitutional principles as an Englishman,
which he maintained in a stern spirit of patriotism
equal, at times, to that of John Hampden. He ap-
peared an able writer, except when the productions
of his pen happened to be placed by the side of
those of his friend Junius, who spoke of Mr. Wilkes
to his Sovereign in the words following.

" Hitherto, Sir, you had been sacrificed to the
prejudices and passions of others. With what
firmness will you bear the mention of your own?

"A man, not very honorably distinguished in the
world, commences a formal attack upon your favor-
ite [Lord Bute], considering nothing but how he
might best expose his person and principles to de-
testation, and the national character of his country-
men to contempt. The natives of that country, Sir,
are as much distinguished by a peculiar character, as
by your Majesty's favor. Like anotherchosen people,
they have been conducted into the land of plenty,
where they find themselves effectually marked, and
divided from mankind. There is hardly a period at
which the most irregular character may not be redeem-
ed. The mistakes of one sex find a retreat in patrio-
tism ; those of the other, in devotion. Mr. Wilkes

68 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

brought with him into politics the same liberal
sentiments by which his private conduct had been
directed, and seemed to think, that, as there are few
excesses in which an English gentleman may not be
permitted to indulge, the same latitude 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 unwarrantable insinua-
tions to escape him. He said more than moderate
men would justify ; but not enough to entitle him to
the honor of your Majesty's personal resentment.
The rays of Royal indignation, collected upon him,
served only to illuminate, and could not consume.
Animated by the favor of the people on one side,
and heated by persecution on the other, his views
and sentiments changed with his situation. Hardly
serious at first, he is now an enthusiast. The cold-
est bodies warm with opposition, the hardest sparkle
in collision. There is a holy mistaken zeal in poli-
tics 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 1 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 thing still
more disgraceful, we have seen, for such an object,
the utmost influence of the. executive power, and

PRELIMINARY VIEW. QQ

every ministerial artifice, exerted without success.
Nor can you ever succeed, unless he should be im-
prudent enough to forfeit the protection of those
laws, to which you owe your crown, or unless your
ministers should persuade you to make it a question
of force alone, and try the whole strength of govern-
ment in opposition to the people. The lessons he
has received from experience, will probably guard
him from such excess of folly ; and in your Majesty's
virtues we find an unquestionable assurance that no
illegal violence will be attempted." — " Not contented
with making Mr. Wilkes a man of importance, they
[the ministers] have judiciously transferred the
question, from the rights and interests of one man, to
the most important rights and interests of the people,
and forced your subjects, from wishing well to the
cause of an individual, to unite with him in their
own" *

I can by no comment add weight to the passage
here cited. The whole address is momentous and
solemn. It comes like a heavy body falling from a
great height. What is there in the royal mind
that hardens the heart against impressions from on
high ? Moses and Aaron, though commissioned by
Heaven, could not correct its errors by words. Judg-
ments and plagues were the only remedies. Com-
pare the whole Letter of Junius to the King with
what occasionally fell from Lord Chatham in Parlia-
ment when speaking on the various subjects of it,
and you will perceive a unity of thought, an unani-

* Junius's Address to the King, 19 December, 17G9.

70 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

mousness of opinion, much more to be regarded than
the sameness of phraseology.

We have seen England's wisest men discarded ;
and ignorance and presumption take their places,
in men notoriously incompetent to their stations.
That ship must be in danger which attempts the wide
and trackless ocean in the darkness of night and in a
gathering storm, with inexperienced officers and
crew.

What increased the embarrassments of the Kins:
and his new servants, was the discontented state of
these North American Colonies. They could not but
see dark and rolling clouds in the West forboding a
storm, engendered by a rash attempt to tax unrepre-
sented subjects at three thousand miles' distance.
Although George the Third had then an able and
honest minister, George Grenvilk, he soon found that
he must retrace his steps. Junius tells the tale, in
a very few words, and in his masterly manner, thus,
— '.' Under one administration the stamp-act is made ;
under the second it is repealed; under the third, in
spite of all experience, a new mode of taxing the
colonies is invented, and a question revived which
ought to have been buried in oblivion." *

At this time the experienced pilot, Chatham, had
retired to a distance from the capital, grievously tor-
mented with gout, complicated with "nervous" dis-
order. He seemed sinking under a heavy load of
disease, and suffering morbid and mental affliction,
as is always the case in hypochondriacal maladies.
According to his enemies, it arose from feeling him-

See the First Letter of Junius, dated the 21st of January, 1769.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 7 J

self neglected, and the government going on with-
out his advice or assistance. But this is judging a
very great man by a vulgar standard. Lord Chat-
ham had arrived at a climacterical period of human
life, noted as critical from the earliest records of med-
icine, an alteration in the human body, depending on
its laws of incrementum and dccrementum, rather than
a Pythagorean theory of the mystical number seven.
This trying period in the life of man, when the
grasshopper is a burden and desire fails, with his
gouty diathesis, accounts sufficiently for his deplorable
state of health ; not but that it may have been ag-
gravated by seeing the magnificent pyramid of his
fame dilapidated by ignoble hands. A man is often
cheerful under the loss of his arms or his legs, and
habit frequently renders a deranged condition of
health tolerable ; but a wounded spirit who can
bear ? To some very high-minded men, abuse, and
even bitter persecution, are more tolerable than ne-
glect. So situated, an ancient Roman would have
destroyed himself, and a modern one, others ; a
condition which a truly great man, and a Christian,
would patiently bear under to the destined end ; as
did Chatham then, and Napoleon since.

In the year 1768, our great statesman resigned
the only post he had retained, that of privy-seal. It
was remarkable, that on this occasion he did not go
to court, as is usual, but sent the seals to his Majesty
by his intimate and revered friend Lord Camden.
The retired minister's disgust was too manifest, and
his resentment too strong to be for ever concealed.
He felt, as he declared in the House of Lords, that

72 PRELIMINARY VIEW.

he had been deceived and duped from a very high
source under the guise of particular kindness and
marked personal respect. He himself constitution-
ally and rationally honest, abhorred deceit and hy-
pocrisy. In former ages, and in absolutely despotic
governments such a powerful man as Pitt, Earl of
Chatham, a minister whose transcendent abilities
overshadowed Majesty itself, would have been cut
off by some violent death, while the monarch was
surrounded by innumerable guards.

In the tragedy of empires, Britain — " that pre-
cious stone set in the silver sea"* — exhibited to
surrounding nations, and to the eye of philosophy, at
the close of the eighteenth century, a rare spec-
tacle in her King, his ministers, and his people.f
The last scene in this grand drama is to be acted in
this new world,

" Where shall he sung another golden age,
The rise of empire, and of arts,
The good and great inspiring epic rage,
The wisest heads and noblest hearts.

" Not such as Europe breeds in her decay ;
Such as she bred when fresh and young,
When heavenly flame did animate her clay
By future poets shall be sung.

* Shakspeare.

f Lord Malmesbury was sent to Paris in 1796 to offer peace, and it
was refused. The following year he returned a second time unsuc-
cessful. George the Third was in 1795 and 1796 dangerously as-
saulted in his state coach with stones on his way to the parliament
house. Soon after there was mutiny throughout the British fleet, and
a very alarming rebellion in Ireland. During this state of affairs
Bonaparte was carrying his victories over Europe with the rapidity of
a torrent, and threatening England with invasion, while the Sovereign
suffered a relapse of his insanity, which continued to the close of his
long life.

PRELIMINARY VIEW. 73

" Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
The fifth shall close the drama with the day ;
Time's noblest offspring is the last." *

* Dean Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne. This eminent
philosopher, good man, and venerable prelate came to America about
1723, with the hope of establishing a college for the education of our
aboriginal Indians. He resided several years on Rhode Island, and
tradition says, he there wrote his " Minute Philosopher.'''' One of my
parents, who died at 90 years of age, remembered him distinctly.
Another aged person had heard him preach a charity sermon in Boston,
and described minutely to me his athletic person. He gave his library,
his farm, and mansion, called Whitehall, to the Connecticut College,
established at New Haven.

CONCERNING

JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIRST IMPRESSION MADE BY JUNIUS's LETTERS IN OLD

ENGLAND, AND IN NEW. THE FIRST QUESTION, WHO IS

JUNIUS? SUSPICION FELL ON THE RIGHT HON. EDMUND

BURKE. ARGUMENTS AGAINST THAT SUPPOSITION. AN

EPISODE.

Behold then the illustrious Chatham, retired, rilled with
disgust and resentment, yet silent. Was this an absolute re-
tirement from all public cares into the quiet of domestic
repose ? By no means. The perturbed spirit cannot rest.

" O polish'd perturbation ! golden care !
That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night ! " *

In less than a year after Lord Chatham withdrew from
office, as well as from Parliament, Junius burst forth the
champion of the rights of Englishmen, and the stern vindicator
of the principles of the constitution.

These epistles broke upon the public ear like thunder, at a
time, and under circumstances, which gave them remarkable
force on a discontented nation. I say nation, for these Ameri-

* Shakspeare.

76 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

can colonies, which then made a part of it, had become, like the
Britons, uneasy from the encroachments on their rights, privi-
leges, and English feelings, since the second year after the
accession of King George the Third.

Of these letters of Junius, the first appeared on the 21st of
January, 1769. In a loud, clear, and very powerful voice, they
called forth those dormant feelings, which once constituted the
pride and glory of old England ; but which, like the Ens
vegetabile in the chilling season of winter, had descended
from the branches into the roots of the English oak, possibly
never to bud again, had not a happy transplantation of its
suckers to this congenial soil, encouraged and secured their
growth for ever. These animating addresses were sought after
with avidity in New England, and perused and re-perused with
eagerness. That their orthodoxy, and the spirit of their senti-
ments and style, should be relished here, will surprise no one,
who recollects that our forefathers were actuated by the same
sentiments and temper when constrained to quit their native land
in search of civil and religious freedom. These celebrated
compositions were congenial to our clarified puritanism, the
celestial spark of which had glimmered, now and then, in the
parliament of England even in the reign of the arbitrary Virgin
Queen ; while she tried in vain to smother it.

In 1769 a peculiar heroic opinion prevailed in London. It
was not exactly the same with us as with our elder brethren in
England. There the animating principle was just roused from
its slumber by the loud and commanding voice of Junius
Brutus ; who appeared bearing a lighted torch in one hand,
to show the people their hazardous situation while sleeping in
the dark ; and in the other, a dagger to defend Liberty in her
disputed march through an host of enemies, in a land overlaid
by frivolity and corruption. If we " in these ends of the
earth " were not then quite awake, our slumbers were often
disturbed with dreaming of British encroachments, especially
after our favorite Pitt had retired from office, and obscured
his bright name in that of Chatham.

BURKE SUSPECTED TO BE JUNIUS. 77

It is said that we of New England are characterized by a
remarkably inquisitive spirit. If curiosity be a sign of a vigo-
rous intellect, few people have a greater share of it than the
native white men of this self-governing region. I can remem-
ber, sixty years ago, that the great question agitated, and
eagerly discussed, was, — Who is this Junius ? this intrepid
and very able man, who attacks thus boldly the highest
official characters in the realm, — the high and mighty of our
glorious nation, — the chiefs of the law, — the selected counsel-
lors of the crown, — the army itself, and the rich and com-
pact phalanx of British aristocracy and nobility ; nor stops
there, but audaciously attacks the Sovereign himself, the
personified majesty of the whole nation, and draws him
forth before his whole people from the dark recesses of his
palace into open day, to answer for his conduct? To what
rank, class, or degree must this lonely man belong, who
thus sternly and sarcastically upbraids, in a voice of dig-
nified authority, steady and unfaltering, the ministers and
favorites of the King, — the head of the judiciary, — the sword-
bearers of the law, — and the representatives of the people ;
accusing them of violating the principles of the constitution,
of lack of wisdom and knowledge, and of misleading a young
and inexperienced monarch to the nation's ruin ?

From between 1769 and 1774, the authorship of Junius was
a topic of almost daily conjecture among the sons of the Pil-
grims. The puzzle seemed to be, who, among the great men of
England (for great he must be) thus daunts, with his casti-
gating pen and imposing manner, the whole body of law-
makers and law-expounders; nay, the army, the church, and
its nominal head, exhibiting him, who is, theoretically, too
exalted to do wrong, as another Belshazzar before a second
Daniel ? From that time to this period, a space of sixty
years, conjecture has been wearied in guessing who that well-
informed and polished writer, — that steady, uniform, unflur-
ried, powerful, and fearless man could bo, who, rising all at

78 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

once, shook all that could be shaken, that political Jupiter,
who but nodded,

" et totum nutu tremefecit Olympum."

Suspicion fell upon Edmund Burke, not merely on ac-
count of his superior powers in debate, and masterly pen ;
but also from his station, and great influence in the Rocking-
ham party, that noble band of honorable whigs, so justly
celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic. It would be a tax upon
patience to recount and dwell on the names of other men, who
have each, at different times, been imagined the author of the
Letters in question, even down to General Charles Lee,* well
known in this country for mediocrity of powers as a soldier and
a politician. The search has been too superficial ; and the inqui-
ry confined rather to brilliant scholars than profound statesmen.
It seems to have been chiefly this, — Who among the British pol-
iticians had studied English composition so successfully as to
be capable of writing such true and polished examples of it?
The error seems to have been, that instead of the soul of
Junius, they regarded only his pen ; as if they expected to
see an Oliver Goldsmith yoked with a Nicholas Machiavel,
ploughing together the same field. Instead of the mind of
Raphael, discernible in his compositions and expression, they
have stopped short to scrutinize and dispute about his col-
oring.

Mr. Burke stood a fair candidate for the honor ; being a
staunch whig, an able speaker, and a fine writer. With a
capacious and versatile understanding, he resembled a moun-
tain torrent, increased by ceaseless streams, impregnated with
every earthly and aerial thing, rich, fragrant, wholesome, and
otherwise, running free, clear, rapid, and sonorous ; sometimes
turbid, and now and then offensive ; but not marked with the
undeviating dignity, resistless force and grandeur of Junius,

* Lee was to General Washington what Lord George Sackville
was to Prince Ferdinand.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST BURKE'S BEING JUNIUS. 79

who is like a burning wave of volcanic source, its origin in
deeply hidden caverns, beyond the strata of gold and glittering
gems, in the awful region of earthquakes, " the dark, un-
fathomed, infinite abyss." *

Had the facts contained in the Letters of Junius been all
spread before Mr. Burke, he might, by his taste and patient
attention, have expressed them to the understanding with equal
elegance if not force ; but the original feeling, the symptoms of
a febrile excitement, the rage, the provocation, the induce-
ment, the fire in the embers, perceptible in Junius, and all that
which art and genius could not have supplied, would have been
wanting. Could a man, writing for fame, for money, or high
station, speak like that terrific being behind the curtain ? Be-
sides, what extraordinary provocation had Edmund Burke to
speak daggers in 1769, '70, '71, and '72 ? He lived and
moved under the patronage of the Marquis of Rockingham,
and of that small, but condensed phalanx of intrepid whigs, in
which, for a series of years, he carried a pair of colors, and
sometimes appeared to exercise a higher command. Add to
this, Burke could hardly have been acquainted with the arcana
secretissima of the court of England, and of some other courts,
with which it is evident Junius was familiar, and with that of
England even to a personal knowledge of regal affairs, and
even all the domestic circumstances of royalty; which appears
from his treating the most imposing part of the garb of
government with the steady composure of a veteran, grown
grey and weary in its gaudy service. Mr. Burke held up
exquisite and highly wrought small pictures of East Indian
anecdotes, calculated to excite horror and indignation. He
frightens you with his lively paintings, executed with Dutch
exactness, of the rage, rags, dirt, blood, and splendor of dis-
tracted France ; and, for a moment, we feel the theatrical
effect. The sphere of his vision, however, never extended
to American greatness. He never^saw this vast country

* Milton.

80 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

with the optics of Lord Chatham. Hence he sighed not over
the departing greatness of Britain, when she pressed us to
draw the defensive sword, as did that prophetic statesman.
This passionate, warm-hearted, and brilliant son of Ireland,
only raved, stamped, swore, and cried at the momentary
delirium of disordered France. He saw not its final salutiferous
effects.

To compare sculptors and painters with orators and political
writers, may we not say that Burke was an admirable painter
of the Venetian school ; that he was to Lord Chatham and to
Junius, what Tintoret was to Michael Angelo and Titian ?
Chatham and Angelo were original masters ; Burke and Tin-
toret, admirably apt and most excellent scholars. " I follow,"
said this charming, rapid, and various painter, (Tintoret paint-
ed without previous sketch or study,) " I follow Michael Angelo
for my designs, and Titian for my coloring." Whom did
Angelo follow ? Whom did Chatham imitate ? They followed
only the grand, beautiful, and forcible of nature. There is
internal evidence of self-derivation in Junius, as clearly so
as of originality in Chatham.

1 mistake the character of Edmund Burke, luxuriant as was
his genius and exuberant his fancy, if he could sustain the
dignified deportment of indignant Junius for three years togeth-
er without once betraying the Irish brogue, or the smell of
whiskey. Burke seemed to be excited by the hectic fever of
genius, and, at times, by its delirium. Furthermore, I
consider the correspondence, carried on with an individual
printer, during at least three years, under a mask, which the
most prying curiosity was unable to penetrate, as one of the
most extraordinary facts in history ; and to my view bordering
on the wonderful. All which I regard as beyond the powers
and the means of Mr. Burke.

It may be said, — Why dwell on the question of Mr. Burke,
seeing he positively and repeatedly denied that he was the
author of the Letters in question, as many had guessed ? We
answer, that the situation and circumstances of the author,

AN EPISODE. 81

whoever he may be, are such as to set all asseverations at
nought ; on which we shall speak more distinctly hereafter.

This question may be well asked by a British reader, — Who
and what are you, who thus undertake to determine the most
important secret of our times? you, born and dwelling in a far-
distant region from us, where, a little over two hundred years
ago, an English word had never been uttered ; a country abso-
lutely unknown four hundred years since ; a region, nay, a
quarter of the globe, of which the ancients had no knowledge,
not even a tradition of its existence. Is it likely that an
inhabitant of such a new-found land can untie a knot after
all our efforts have failed ? The punishment to be inflicted
for such an untoward question, shall be

AN EPISODE.

The land in which we dwell, these United States of North
America, is, perhaps, the spot on the globe best adapted for a
political camera obscura* whence to view the stationary and
the moving scenery of Europe. The distance favors it, and
our position, New England, is well calculated for contemplating
the interesting planet Great Britain, the Saturn in the Europe-
an system, with its wondrous ring, its floating fortifications, and
golden commerce. The wide space between is not unfavorable
to this notion, seeing distance in space operates like distance
of time.

The earliest settlement of New England was made by
transplanted Englishmen ; a courageous band, animated by
religious zeal, of more than ordinary enterprise and education,
several of their leaders being sons of Oxford and of Cambridge.

* A camera obscura is a sort of artificial eye, or optical machine, so
constructed that the images of external objects arc distinctly and
correctly represented in their true perspective light and shade, their
proper colors, and with all their motions.

82 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

An unmixed population, unaltered language, and general ac-
quaintance with English history, set off with a steady perusal
of the holy Scriptures, have ever since enabled us to consider
deliberately our own situation and powers, as well as the
characteristical temper and most striking features of the British
people, their noble struggles for rational freedom, their re-
bellions, their revolutions, their numerous wars, their eminent
men, their boasted constitution of government, their general
literature, and their individual examples of brilliant genius.
While we view these things with admiration, smaller matters
and little defects are lost, like the voice of their local com-
batants in the silent space between us. In such remoteness,
temporary contentions, adventitious circumstantials, hard words,
jealousies, and fears among rivals are spent in the intervening
air, and happily lost to our senses. A situation this, best
adapted to impartial history ; and it is the position which a
writer should wish to occupy when surveying the condition
and movements of a kindred nation ; as proximity is unfavora-
ble to dignified history.

Our situation and circumstances as a free and inquisitive
people, violently split off from a great naval and commercial
nation at three thousand miles' distance, yet reading the same
books, writing the same language, exercised in the same system
of a protestant education, listening to the same dramas, following
in dress and manners the same fashions, pathetically affected by
similar idiosyncrasies and superstitions, evinced by our diseases
and by our delight in Shakspeare, would, it seems, constitute
us a people thoroughly British in our notions, prejudices,
sympathies, antipathies, admirations, and theological theories.
The famous Prince and Bishop Talleyrand, on his return to
France from America, reported to the French Academy or
National Institute, that we were, to all intents, English. But
this very able man and profound politician did not remain
here long enough to characterize us exactly. In our churches,
in the resorts of merchants, in our theatrical exhibitions, on
board our ships, in the structure and furniture of our houses,

AN EPISODE. 83

and in our very numerous gay shops, we seem, to the eye of
a transient visiter, a people merely English ; and perhaps so
to the understanding of the sojourner, who may remark, that
whenever we utter the conceptions of our minds, they are
clothed in the same language, literal and figurative ; yet are
we, after all, a somewhat different people from the English,
Scotch, Irish, Dutch, or French. The current of our thoughts,
and the direction of our views, are variant from them all. We
have no hereditary chief magistrate, nor royal family, nor
that imperium in imperio, a court, with its perplexing, and, in
some respects, ridiculous appendages. We bend the knee to
no earthly fountain of honor ; and those glistening rills of it,
so precious in the eyes of the British, reach us not, but are
lost in the intervening ocean ; their sources or head-springs,
which are objects of a species of worship in Europe, are
little regarded here. Heraldry, so sedulously studied in the
land of our forefathers, is here an unknown science, and its
terms hardly intelligible. * Hence it is we cannot call a poor old
man, His Holiness, or any man whatever, His Sacred Majesty.
We educate our children to venerate old age, and to look
through the halo of etiquette to the man himself; and we
point them to the New Testament, and teach them to compare
the high-sounding titles of the transatlantic priesthood with the
lives and doctrines of the disciples of the immaculate Founder
of our Holy Religion.

Nevertheless our government is not absolutely democratical,
seeing wc have, in a qualified sense, a King, Lords, and
House of Commons, in our federal as well as state governments,
only they are elective for one or more years, while the people,
when they choose to speak or act, are Sovereign ; out-
laws are made, established, and enforced by the concurrence
of all the three branches, as in England ; and our judiciary is
a close imitation of the English. The theory of all this may
be expressed in one word, general consent. Alike as we are in
the forms, the perspicax oculus may discern a difference
between the people of Old England and of New. In the first,

84 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

there is more of prejudice and acquiescence in authority, an
obsequiousness rather than a consent. It is this sort of adopted
government, and an education of youth in which corporal
correction is almost entirely excluded and considered igno-
minious, and our singular situation on the terraqueous globe,
which have turned the stream of our thoughts into channels
and eddies variant from those of the British, or of any other
nation upon earth, and directed our views to objects, in some
measure, peculiar to ourselves. But the Briton who is only
acquainted with our merchants, seamen, and journal-compilers,
would form a different judgment.

Never having bowed the knee to the conqueror's sword or
the monarch's sceptre, we, like the brave sons of nature in our
forests, regard and honor the superior powers of the mind if
joined with heroic deeds ; but pay little attention to the adven-
titious garb with which accident or blind fortune may have
clothed men. Hence an American calls the chief magistrate
or elective monarch of his nation by the simple name given
him at his birth.

Such a people enjoying almost Indian freedom may have a
lively relish for the best portions of Grecian and Roman history,
while the early British annals shall not make the same impres-
sion on their minds as is generally made upon the prejudiced, I
had almost said bigoted minds of the inhabitants of that renowned
island whence we in New England principally sprang. When
we cast our eyes over the hazy and indistinct landscape which
Old England exhibits from the days of King Alfred down to the
time of those " iron barons," who, in rusty armour, eternized
the name of their effigy of a king by compelling him to sign
their Magna Charta, we find less to detain the mind than if
we were natives of England and subjects of her king. What
are the castle-building, bow-and-arrow epochs of the island of
Britain to us, when Kings sought security behind thick walls
of stone and mounds of earth, and behind ditches and draw-
bridges, while their soldiery were cased up in iron and brass ;
when the morals of the men, and of the women also, were

AN EPISODE. 85

thought insecure outside the walls of monasteries and nun-
neries ? Millions of people in these new states never saw a
castle, a monastery, or a crowned king.* We run rapidly
over, with little interest, that portion of English history
when fighting and devotion divided the world. What deep
interest can we feel in the Duke of Normandy, so famed in
British heraldry as the fountain of their honor ? — a French
adventurer, a sort of land-pirate, who destroyed six and thirty
churches to make more room for hunting, and who punished
with the loss of eyes whoever of his subjects killed a stag
or a wild boar. Yet is this ruffian king, called by way
of eminence " the Conqueror," acknowledged the rightful
and glorious Sovereign of a people who have, with glaring
inconsistency, called Napoleon an usurper, — him who received
his imperial crown from a large majority of Frenchmen in the
free election of an affectionate and admiring people, and that not
by right of conquest, but was declared " the Lord's anointed"
according to the solemn rites of both the Gallican and Anglican
churches. We Americans see all these things through optics
of our own ; and do not always use the sterling steelyard of
our ancestors when we weigh these great personages.

No vestiges of the delirious crusaders are to be seen in
this New World, nor any thing to call to mind those unsettled
times when all Christendom united, for the first time, to destroy
the believers in Mahomet, the most numerous sect upon
earth, and to recover from them " the holy land," the scene of
the life and sufferings of our Saviour : a mere pretext, the
reality being to prevent the destruction of every government
in Europe that would not bow in adoration of the crescent
instead of the cross, — when English kings quitted their thrones
to visit popes and miserable shrines, and roam in foreign lands

* On the banks of the Delaware now resides Joseph Bonaparte, the
quondam king of Spain, greatly esteemed and respected by his
neighbours ; a man of whom Napoleon said that " he was too good to be a
King."

86 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

in search of the kingdom of heaven, while the most erudite
spent their lives in searching for the living among the dead.
Except to the mere antiquarian, and the learned law-coun-
sellor, there is very little of the English history that is
interesting to us before we come to the period of Henry the
Eighth, and that chiefly because it is connected with his
more meritorious contemporaries on the thrones of France,
Germany, and Turkey.*

Elizabeth indeed calls forth curiosity, as her history has
in it mat which rivets attention, because the latter part of her
brilliant reign is a portion of our own earliest history * It was
owing to that great woman's love of finery, f gorgeous parades,
sacerdotal pomp, and solemn nonsense, that the wilderness of
North America was peopled by an heroic race of Puritans,
who ultimately divided one half of the British empire from the
other.J Such an emigration or expatriation is not to be found
on the records of mankind. The exodus of the Jews from
Egypt to the land of plenty, of the Trojans from Greece to
Latium, of the Goths to Italy, of the Spaniards to South America
in search of gold and silver, shrink to nothing in point of heroic
enterprise, when compared with the embarkation of men of the
middle rank of life, with their wives and children, to go they
knew not whither, to meet they knew not what or whom, their
object to worship God according to the dictates of their con-
science. Matchless Heroism ! " They left their native land,"
says Junius, " in search of freedom, and found it in a des-
ert." § A country settled by such a people, encouraged to
it by such motives, will breed a race who will think for them-
selves, govern themselves, and worship the only One, Infinite,
Self-existing Being in their own way.

* Francis the First, Emperor Charles the Fifth, and Solyman the
Magnificent.

f David Hume expresses the like idea.
\ See the first Letter of Junius,
§ Letter to the King.

AN EPISODE. 37

Elizabeth was assuredly a powerful and extraordinary
woman ; but the splendor and felicities of her reign have not
so dazzled our eyes as to prevent us from seeing the weak
parts of her character, and the slavish cast of her servile Par-
liament,* in which, however, happily lurked a small spark of
Puritanism, enough to enlighten this country at the beginning,
and from a small matter to make us what we are.

Very many people of Great Britain, and not a few of the Brit-
ish historians, in giving the character of " the Virgin Queen,"
dwell too much upon her treatment of the beautiful and impru-
dent Mary Queen of Scots, whom she was constrained to keep
in considerate confinement many years. They rest the natu-
ral character of Elizabeth almost entirely upon her putative
envy of the personal charms so largely shared by Mary and
so scantily given to Elizabeth. Something may possibly be
attributed to a sexual characteristic, but nothing like what has
been made of it. It is a superficial view of a regal character,
and beneath the dignity of a national history. What is the
beauty of queens to any one but the poet, the painter, and that
corruptor of chaste history, the novelist, though tricked out
by the fanciful pen of a Burke ? I have seen his wonderful
Austrian Princess, at the height of her personal splendor and
happiness, as Queen of France, without absolute fascination, —
without being dazzled by the sight into undiscerning amaze-
ment ; and am persuaded that I could have gazed with
admiration on the more beautiful and accomplished Mary
without forgetting entirely her lineage, her family connexions,
and her Jesuitical education. I believe there is in animated
nature a good breed and a bad breed, even in the human species,
as well as in animals beneath us. Mary Queen of Scots was
a Guise, niece to the famous Duke of that name, and to the
Cardinal Lorraine. She was educated under them, and under
Catharine cle Medicis, three as pernicious characters as any in
history. From these detestable sources she imbibed her li-

* Hume says, that the Parliament in 1601 made little distinction
between Queen Elizabeth and the Deity.

88 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

centious manners and loose principles, and. anti-Anglican
notions of religion and government ; and she transmitted to her
posterity a deep tinge of all their corruptions. Her conduct
during her confinement in the north of England, particularly
her correspondence with certain persons on the continent, was
such as to induce the Parliament to request the Queen, more
than once, to order her execution. They doubtless saw that
the question then was, — Who shall wear the crown of England,
Mary or Elizabeth ? After a great struggle, Elizabeth at
length was brought, as the Sovereign, to consent to the death of
her unhappy relation. In this she acted like a great, just, and
wise chief magistrate. When she was informed that Mary
was beheaded, she wept, raved, and in her frantic fits accused
herself and every one about her. In this she acted like a
woman ; and when she abused and punished the agent she
employed in transmitting the fatal warrant, pretending she had
been deceived and betrayed into the bloody measure, she acted
like a fool. In such a distressful case what can we say, but —
Alas ! poor human nature ! Such was the glorious Queen
Elizabeth, with better and more humane feelings than those
which marked and disgraced Mary and Catharine.

" If to her share some human frailties fall, .

View the whole Queen, and you '11 forget them all."

In this vast region of free thought and frank expression of
it, we can utter our feelings of commiseration for the ill-
educated and deluded King Charles the First ; and vociferate
our disapprobation of the worst of all the Stuart race, his son.
Nay, further. We dare weigh Oliver Cromwell himself in the
scales of even-handed justice, and freely and fearlessly compare
him with other British kings or conquerors, and declare aloud
our opinions of them as men, soldiers, politicians, and Christians.
Mr. Hume, in his systematic history of England, after giving
a pretty candid account of the actions of Cromwell, sums up
his character, and gives a portrait of him, which his own
narrative contradicts. Sir Walter Scott has done just so in

AN EPISODE. 89

his history and character of Napoleon. But we have no
king, queen, heir apparent or presumptive, to gratify and flatter
by " telling their fortunes." Instead of that cruel abuse and
unfair treatment, we only hold up to our magistrates the
scripture doctrine of retributive justice, the simple principle of
Whatsoever a man soivcth that shall he also reap.

Being an independent people, and separated from the old
world by a thousand leagues of ocean, we endeavour to think
down our early prejudices, and correct in ourselves the errors
of the people we originally sprang from, by comparing them
with other nations.

We colonists were taught from our infancy to believe, that
the people of England were the most magnanimous, brave, and
humane race of men upon earth, and in every thing superior
to the French except fiddling, dancing, and fencing. The
only specimens of Frenchmen we had opportunity of seeing
were mercantile men, born in the West India islands, and
their appearance tended to confirm our ridiculous ideas of
the difference in men who fed on la soupe maigre, and the
substantial roast-beef of Old England ; so that when w T e in these
colonies were children in British leading-strings, we spake as
children on national character, we understood as children, we
thought as children; but when we became men in 177G, we
put away most of our childish notions. Thus, when a French
army with General Rochambeau at their head came to this
country, and put themselves under the command of Washing-
ton, we could see, compare, and judge for ourselves. We
admired their athletic men, bordering on the gigantic, and
noticed with surprise that one Frenchman generally ate as
much as two Englishmen, and drank much less ; and found
them a more civil and better behaved people. But above all
we were delighted with their parental or patriarchal govern-
ment of their soldiery, exhibiting a striking contrast between
the management of their men, and the severe, nay cruel
discipline of the British and German troops. In one army no
drunkenness was to be seen ; in the other, sobriety could hardly

90 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

be maintained without the degrading lash. There was so
little of corporal punishment in the French camp compared
with the British and Germans, that the inhabitants of Rhode
Island, at last, suspected that their " good and great allies "
punished their soldiers privately ; but the real fact was, the
French captain treated his men as his children, and addressed
them as such, while the British and the Germans treated their
rank and file more like slaves.*

It is a very serious fact worthy the attention of that transat-
lantic power whom it most concerns, that the shocking and
incessant whippings in the British garrisons in America, and
particularly in that of Boston, long before the battle of Bunker
Hill, tended more to reconcile even the tories, royalists, or
" the King's friends," to a separation from the mother country
than any other circumstance before that memorable battle.
The native inhabitants of both parties considered it treating
white-men as badly as they conceived slave-holders treated
negroes. They revolted at the idea of their children being
thus dealt with hereafter by commissioned officers, author-
ized by the King to keep them in subjection. Some have
said that England lost the affection of the colonists by neglect-
ing entirely the study of the human heart ; and there is more
truth in the remark than ever the executive and legislative
branches of the British government conceived.

Whatever faults may yet remain in us uncorrected, cruelty and
inhumanity belong not to the American character. The opposite
character is conspicuous throughout the war of independ-
ence, and the glorious war for sailors' rights against impress-

* Among the Germans corporal punishment was extended beyond
the rank and file. It was the duty of two young surgeons to remain all
night in the military hospital at Newport, Rhode Island, where were
some very sick. The superior officer of the German medical staff went
to the hospital in the evening, and discovered that the two mates were
gone to a dance. For this desertion from their duty he caused them to
be tied neck and heels ; and they suffered under the beastly punishment
during one hour. Had this been done in the American or British army,
it would have cost the Physician General his brains.

AN EPISODE. 91

ment by a foreign power.* Whigs and tories equally abhorred
the cruel whippings of soldiers for intoxication and sleepiness,
or even for desertion. The inhabitants of Boston hated
the very name and sight of a British soldier, and actually drove
two regiments out of their city to take shelter at Castle William
on an island five miles from the town, before any absolute or reg-
ular hostility commenced. Yet their feelings revolted at seeing
young men, some who had hardly attained the full growth of
men, stripped to their skins, in winter, and tied to a post, and,
in that immovable posture, several men made to inflict upon
each of them 500 lashes with knotted cords, nine in number,
making 4,500 stripes on the tender and very sensitive skin of a
human being. The agony of the sufferers is beyond the power
of expression by words, and under it they frequently die.
This is no exaggeration. 1 assert it from medical authority,
and repeat it from the highest authority, namely, Junius, who
subjoins in a note to that portion of his celebrated Letter to his
Sovereign, where he mentions the army, the words following :
— " 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 frequently expire."

Such a practice is a disgrace to any government upon earth,
and an abomination to that one which is ever boasting of its
characteristic humanity. Take a dog or a horse and carefully
divest him of his hair, that is, his clothing, bind him fast to a
post and then set half a dozen men, for less would be tired
out, to inflict upon him from 500 to 1000 lashes, and I ques-
tion whether the inhabitants of any city, unless it had a very
numerous and overwhelming British or German garrison, would
remain quiet while such cruelty was carrying into execution.
Yet is this degree of barbarity perpetrated on a human being
endowed with the keenest bodily and the highest mental sen-
sibility of any animal in the scale of sublunary beings, and that by

* I say foreign power ; being convinced that it is right, fair, and just
to compel our own seamen to enter our own ships of war, when any
sudden emergency shall threaten the vital interests of commerce or
the country's safety.

92 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

a nation addicted to prate everlastingly of their humane dis-
position as one of their most amiable traits of character. An
Englishman is not so apt to stab to the heart in a sudden gust
of passion, in a violent fit of rage, or the madness of jealousy,
as the Spaniard, the Portuguese, or the Italian, and perhaps the
Irishman ; yet has he a cool, deliberate, and slowly calculating
system of human torture, graduated by a court-martial, totally
unknown in the penal codes of the United States whether civil
or military. To prove or to disprove this allegation, consult
the British history, examine the English penal code, and turn
to the records of their punishments from Henry the Eighth to
our own times,* and see whether we have calumniated a people
who were bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Nor stop
there, but scrutinize our motives, and judge whether what we
have said be from a disposition to find fault, or to reform.
This detestation of degrading and cruel punishments is not a
transient whim. It pervades New England, where the inhabit
tants are all of one color ; it reigns in our schools, and adorns
our courts of law. The indecent, the shameful modes of
punishment inflicted on young gentlemen in the Westminster
and Eton schools are thought of in this country with disgust
and abhorrence. In this cardinal point of degrading and cruel
punishments we Americans differ widely from the people we
sprang from ; and it has laid and still lays a strong line of
demarcation between the English character and the American.
The treatment of prisoners of war justifies our assertion.

Have we said enough, or too much, to show that instead of
fortifying our early notions and juvenile prejudices, we Ameri-
cans try to reason down bigotry, that we may be able to judge of
the sovereigns of the British, of their hereditary aristocracy, of
their government, and of their people, as deliberately as we do of

* Within the current year appeared in our newspapers an article
taken from an English paper, stating that two sergeants belonging to
a certain British regiment quartered in Ireland, were sentenced to
receive each a thousand lashes, that one received upwards of COO, the
other upwards of 500, when they were unbound lest they should expire
under the torture.

AN EPISODE. 93

the characters and the affairs of the Greeks and Romans ? Have
we rendered it probable that we are, in a good measure, divested
of many idle notions, undue partialities and practices, prevalent
in the land of our ancestors ? Not that we advocate the eradica-
tion of all prejudices ; some of which are necessary to our
happiness if not existence, outrunning the slow pace of reason,
and partaking more of instinct ; as the love of parents, and of
our native country, which it would be wicked to smother, since
they are implanted in our very nature to supply the place of
reason, and are strongest where that is weakest.

We whose native language is English, possess a vast region
of the globe, varied in climate and still more in fertility,
diversified by mountains and valleys, the whole interposed
between the boundless Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and all
connected together by navigable rivers of unparalleled extent
and magnitude, with interior seas greatly surpassing those in any
other quarter of the globe, and rapidly traversed by the force
of steam, a powerful but invisible agent, destined to expedite
civilization, far more rapid (yet managable) than the wind itself.
Neither Greeks, Romans, nor Phoenicians had any knowledge
or even tradition of this vast country. The two first called all
the more northern people Scythians, and all the western
Celta, indiscriminately. Of Africa, they had no other knowl-
edge than the nearest part of Ethiopia, nor even of Asia
beyond the Ganges.* The boasted travels of certain philoso-
phers and conquerors, so extraordinary during the epoch of
Grecian splendor, excite a smile when compared with the
voyages in our own days.

Having then, a wider horizon and fewer fables than the Greeks
or Romans, and standing upon the shoulders of the British phi-
losophers and politicians, we ought to see farther than they.
Since the mariner's compass has aided commerce to bind a
discordant world together in a golden chain, and since gun-
powder has equalized the contests of battle, and the art of

* See Bacon's Novum Organum, Part. I. Sect. iv.

94 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

printing given wings to literature, a new order of things,
undreamt of by the ancients, has taken place. With these
advantages, and several others untold, we ventured half a
century ago upon the experiment of self-government, and
succeeded to our utmost wish ; our success being accompanied
with a new and remarkable fact in the history of nations, which
stamps us a peculiar people. I mean, that during a ten years'
dispute in words, and a seven years' contest in arms, we had
no vgry great and leading man amongst us, to whose particular
and individual foresight, wisdom, and personal address, we can
or ought to give the lofty title of Liberator or Saviour of
his country. The memoirs of Franklin, and the printed letters
of Washington, evince this. There was too much diffused wis-
dom in the great body of the people, and too much integrity in
their representatives to admit an overshadowing of any individual
leader. It was the wisdom of the people that made Washington
what he was, from the very best of materials ; and he reflected
back upon them his glorious character. Less conspicuous
but by no means less efficacious were the unwearied labors of
Samuel Adams in New England, and Benjamin Franklin
in Europe. But neither of them could ever have pushed
forward a family interest an inch, had he tried. George
Washington was drawn out from his liberal retirement by the
voice of a judicious community. The people felt an irresisti-
ble confidence, that, under God, they were to be free by their
own energy, wisdom, and courage, through the guiding influ-
ence of honest statesmen, and a cool, very prudent, republican
General. And the one destined to lead was replete with that
determined patriotic spirit, which reigned and triumphed
throughout our seven years' struggle for independence, and
eight years afterwards. Yet ten years anterior to his public
appearance, the unconquerable spirit of Independence, " lord
of the lion heart and eagle eye," inspired the souls of some in
New England, particularly one, who with a prophet's foresight,
and the persevering zeal of a reformer, united the fearless
heart of a martyr. He did more than sow the seeds of

AN EPISODE. 95

independence in a Puritan soil ; he first touched and then
managed those secret springs which separated us from the
mother country, and insensibly brought forward that great and
modest man, to whom a grateful people spontaneously gave the
most honorable and endearing of titles, — The Father of
His Country.*

Although derived principally from an English stock, we are
yet theoretically and habitually a different people. It is from
that memorable era of freedom denominated in England the
glorious Revolution of 1G8S, that we Americans trace a
common principle of liberty with the English. It was when they
called in a Dutchman to fill the throne of Great Britain ; a man
like our Washington, " silent and thoughtful ; given to hear and
inquire ; of a sound and steady understanding ; firm in what
he once resolved or once denied ; strongly intent on business,
little on pleasure ; by these virtues he engaged the attention of
all men." f Anterior to this epoch of whig principles, we are
seldom disposed to cite English authorities ; for what is there
for veneration or example in the Plantagenets, Tudors, or
Stuarts, or in their imported queens ? We hold in high esti-
mation the faithful history of that wise, brave, and prudent
people the Dutch, a race of men renowned for industry,
sobriety, and learning, who have made their country, in spite
of unpropitious nature, the most convenient and wonderful
territory upon earth, bearing marks throughout of a sagacious,
wise, and moral people, and whose metropolis not very long ago
was the emporium of the world. J They are a people who not
only excel in what may be called the economy of human life,
but in learning also. May it not be said of that small territory
denominated the Seven Provinces of Holland, that it contains

* Washington never ceased to betray marks of uneasiness when-
ever complimented as The great man of the revolution. He used to
say — " J claim only the honor of commanding a brave and patriotic
army in obedience to Congress."

f Hume's character of King William the Third.

| Amsterdam.

96 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

more learning than any district of its size, that is or ever was in
the world ?

I am not certain that we could follow the literature and phi-
losophy of a wiser nation than the British or the Dutch. But
why follow any, seeing our vantage-ground excels that of
either ? We occupy a spot clear of false doctrines, and an-
tiquated opinions on most subjects. We should ever bear in
mind, that whoever follows must of necessity go behind.

Next after surmounting national prejudices, and local super-
stitions, is the heroic effort to rise above the prejudice of time,
lest we too become nailed to the opinion that the ancients
monopolized knowledge. Great, very great, as some of them
certainly were, take them in the aggregate, we shall find them
behind us, whatever some men of deep classical learning may
imagine. Nor is that a matter for surprise, seeing venerable
antiquity is in fact the youth of the world, and our times the
age of maturity and riper judgment, and greater experience,
and infinitely greater variety of knowledge. Shall we then,
who live in the more advanced age of the world, indulge the
idle disposition of confining our views to the narrow specula-
tions of the ancients. The history of little more than a
thousand years comprises all they knew. Great as some of
the ancients confessedly were, it is a diminution of the majesty
of mind to be awe-struck by the genius and industry of the
most eminent of them.

Have we in this reverie done injustice to any ? for " I am
really," to use the words of Pope, " so far gone as to take
pleasure in reveries of this kind." I will put an end to them
with saying, that the separation of interests and of government
which took place about fifty years ago between America and
Great Britain, has not diminished in our eyes the brightness of
that glorious constellation of genius and learning which marks
and dignifies the reign of the Virgin Queen. We gaze at it
from our observatory with undiminished admiration. Happy
Elizabeth ! to have flourished in the era of Bacon and
Shakspeare ! Fortunate Alexander ! to have run his race of
glory in the days of Aristotle and Plato !

CHAPTER II.

IMPOSSIBLE THAT JUNIUS COULD HAVE BEEN THE SOLE

DEPOSITARY OF HIS OWN SECRET. MUST HAVE BEEN PAST

THE NOON OF LIFE. A NOBLEMAN, RICH, AND POWERFUL.

HIS WRITINGS MARKED BY PECULIARITY OF STYLE.

THEIR TENDENCY ALWAYS PATRIOTIC, AND EXCLUSIVELY

ENGLISH. HIS LETTER TO LORD CAMDEN DIFFERENT

FROM ALL THE REST.

Sitting down to our adjusted camera, let us regard the
passing scenery across the Atlantic ; and skipping over our
digression, unite here the broken thread of our discourse.

It appears to our view, that the writings of Junius emanated
from one mind, and yet not without assistance. Some person
must have been privy to them ; but this aid must have been
confined to the writer's own household, to his nearest family
connexions ; subordinate to one great, overruling mind ; an
affair strictly, virtuously, and sacredly confidential, between per-
sons knit closely together by affection, and bound to each other
by a congenial feeling of resentment and of danger, partners
"whose double bosoms seem to wear one heart" ; like hus-
band, wife, and daughter by themselves in a deserted bark at
sea, to sink or swim together. Otherwise, the transcription and
the immediate transmission of those letters to one and the same
printer could not have been accomplished, circumstances con-
sidered ; a service that could not be purchased with money or
enforced by authority. It must have been done through kin-
dred aid alone, it being that kind of concern in which the
stranger doth not intermeddle. Without such domestic aid

98 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

and affectionate conspiration, we cannot conceive that such an
extraordinary and dangerous correspondence could possibly
have been carried on three years undetected, and have re-
mained undivulged to- this time. None of the searchers after
Junius have considered this point with due attention.

The whole series of Letters indicate the author of them to
have been a great man, a rich man, and an indignant one ;
for here resentment and even wrath supplied the ordinary stim-
ulus of fame, which the great man was contented to forego,
sharpening to a keen edge the weapon of personal indignation
as well as public avengement. Anger may be terrible, yet
allowable, provided we sin not. But the indignation of Junius
has been too often called rancor, venom, and malice. If a
considerable portion of his Letters, even the bitterest part of
them, had been displayed in poetry instead of prose, they
would have been denominated satire, and not stigmatized as
effusions of a malignant heart. Did ever Junius show so vin-
dictive a spirit towards the Duke of Grafton or Lord Mans-
field, as Burke testified towards Warren Hastings ? In invec-
tive did he exceed very much Lord Chatham in parliament ?

The diction and style of Junius are peculiarly his own.
Pregnant with meaning, his language differs from that of all other
writers. Amid the most taunting sarcasms he is solemn, haughty,
and impatient ; and whenever he is disposed to be playful, it is
the lion dandling the ape. He never attempts to hold up the
office of a king to ridicule, nor betrays the least sign of a wish
to be one. Neither is there a discernible effort to stir up from
the dust of the ground dangerous popular impressions, out-
rageous passions, or wild superstitions, such as are engendered
between wrath and ignorance, calculated to move the legs and
arms of the people, rather than to operate on their understand-
ing and judgment. Stripped of all equivocation, he addresses
minds of the first order. He lays no traps for weak intellects,
no snares for the unwary, has no tricks of short-lived policy ; all
is open and above-board. He speaks to his contemporaries, and
at the same time to posterity. Though his awful warnings are

CHARACTER OF HIS STYLE. 99

in the dignified style of a prophet, he hints at no deep, dark,
and portentous designs yet unrevealed ; no concatenation of
schemes by intriguing Jesuits, or mines of combustibles just
ready to explode under the people's feet. There is nothing
like Mr. Burke's hurricanes of eloquence, when beating up for
volunteers to crusade against revolutionary France, nor any
attempt to frighten reason from her throne that revenge might
take her place, nor the least intimation of a desire to subvert or
alter the English constitution of government. On the contrary,
there appear throughout his energetic pages, loyalty to mon-
archy, homage to truth and correct morals, and a venera-
tion of the laws. He seems neither a Scotchman, Irishman,
nor American, but the inflexible Englishman treading sternly
the straight, rough path of truth and constitutional duty.

Junius is a gentleman ; and when he speaks to his Sove-
reign, it is with studied respect ; when he alludes to the
unhappy King Charles, it is upon such nice and important
points in the life of that well-intentioned monarch, that they
rather indicate friendship than a wish to mortify the King.
Louis the Fourteenth would have made a friend of such a
counsellor ; and had the ill-educated Charles the First in-
clined his ear early to such an adviser, he might have died
in his palace a common death, surrounded by affectionate
relatives and grateful servants. Still there was something very
alarming in Junius, from his invisibility, and the not knowing
what would come next. There seems this difference between
the writings of Junius and the passionate effusions of Burke ;
the one shone like a glittering and transitory meteor in the
thick and troubled atmosphere of England, while the other
resembled more an appalling comet, — a terrific intruder from
unknown regions of space, that

"In dim eclipse disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations ; and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs. Darken'd so, yet shone
Above them all th'arch Junius."*

* Milton, B. 1.

100 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

In such a research as ours, when demonstration halts, the
mind soothes itself by reposing upon the internal evidence of
things, as in solemn matters above the contentions of men.
Reading then hy this candle of the Lord within us, we perceive
that although genius alone produced the dramas of Shakspeare,
and that strange production the Vision of Dante, and the Par-
adise of Milton, it could not have raised up and embodied that
spirit of Whiggism that burns and blazes in the volumes before
us ; in which, beside the facts, views, and reasoning, there is dis-
cernible a spirit of holy zeal not unlike that which characterizes
the apostle Paul in a higher cause and a harder task, a zeal
unaided by the ordinary stimulants of fame or riches. The
world was not rich enough to purchase such exertions as those
of Paul or of Junius.

From every view of the subject, it appears that the author
of the Letters must be sought among the very few great men
of his day and country, — the Burleighs and the Sullys of the
kingdom ; such men alone could give lessons of wisdom to a
discontented nation, and its troubled King, — lessons which,
while they compelled attention, excited dismay, like the fear-
ful handwriting on the palace-walls of the Assyrian king.
The original conception, the first resolution, the steady and
dignified execution of the golden pages of Junius, are above
the minds of any of those men to whom they have been
attributed, with the exception, perhaps, of Mr. Burke. What
is there in the writings of Demosthenes or of Cicero that
exceeds them? We view the thundering Grecian, and the
clear-headed, indefatigable Roman, through the long shadowy
vista of antiquity, in which the imagination has some play,
tending naturally to exaggeration ; while we examine and scru-
tinize Junius through a near and more familiar umbrage.

To inform, to enlighten, to warn, and to advise for the best
a young monarch, characterized by an ungovernable self-suffi-
ciency, or in fewer words, by a strong will and weak judgment,
a king too obstinate for patient endurance, yet rather too good
for a second example to British kings and subjects, — to

JUNIUS PAST THE NOON OF LIFE. 101

remedy the disorder, required an inspired physician ; and such
a one was the English Junius Brutus. The grand indication
was to remove something rotten in the state of Britain ; or
rather " to infuse a portion of new health into the constitution,
to enable it to bear its infirmities,'''' — a sentence uttered hy
Lord Chatham, and sanctified by Junius.*

There is internal evidence that the writer of the Letters
was a personage settled down in the steadfastness of advanced
life and confirmed principles, under a satiety of worldly gran-
deur, familiarized with royalty, acquainted with privy councils,
parliaments, and diplomatic affairs, and thoroughly versed in
the architecture of the English constitution. There is a well-
sustained dignity, bordering on austerity, " which gives to
Junius the air and authority of a great personage in disguise."
His experience, the result of age, shines out in his thorough
knowledge of the army ami navy. His age is indicated in
a private letter to Mr. Wilkes dated November 6, 1771, where
he complains that no man writes under such disadvantages as
himself. " I cannot consult the learned. I cannot directly
ask the opinion of my acquaintance, and in the newspapers I
never am assisted. Those who are conversant with books,
well know how often they mislead us, when we have not a
living monitor at hand to assist us in comparing practice with
theory." Again. " After I had blinded myself with poring
over journals, debates, and parliamentary history, I was at last
obliged to hazard a bold assertion." This is in the plaintive
tone of an old man, of a man of leisure, unassisted in that
most important point, legal information : yet, in the execu-
tion of his heroic task, he must have had an intellectual aid.
One blade of a pair of scissors by itself is useless. To cut,

* The words of the Earl of Chatham in Parliament, quoted by
Junius, who calls it " a brilliant expression, and full of intrinsic
wisdom." It has allusion to an obsolete practice among some physi-
cians in the 17th century, of transfusing the blood of young and healthy
subjects into the veins of old and diseased ones. A more enlightened
physiology and pathology have exploded both the theory and the
practice of it.

102 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

they must be rivetted together. He must have had intellectual
as well as chirographical aid. The question is, from whom ?
and of what kind ? If money could have purchased it. the
vital secret would have been betrayed and sold for money.

A haughty spirit pervades the writings of Junius, and some-
times an imperious, domineering cast of mind, even when he
must have discovered that he was wrong, as in his hasty attack
on Parson Home. He sometimes uses the language of rage
and boiling anger in terms evidently studied and carefully
labored, and utters contempt in phrases highly polished, " aware
that a wound may be given more deeply with a burnished than
with a rusty blade." * In his attacks on the Duke of Grafton
and Lord Mansfield, he too often descends from the generality
of reflection which is satire, to the abuse of their persons which
is lampooning. It appears, however, more the result of keen
resentment than the voice of mortified pride. Harsh as it some-
time is, it partakes not of that atrabilarious malignity, that long-
engendered, Tiberian acrimony, which human blood alone could
dilute. His reprehensive manner has more the air of the
supernatural inspiration of a prophet, thundering in the drowsy
ears of stupid sinners, than the vulgar passion of a demagogue.
He looks down with lordly indignation and generous rage upon
all time-serving men, from the palace to the play-house. In the
midst of his political anger, he evinces an amiable solicitude
for the welfare of those beneath him, as towards his printer,
Woodfall. The observation of Pliny is thus confirmed, that your
gay, lively, philanthropic men, distinguished for kindness and
good-humor, are equally remarkable for sharpness of expres-
sion and severity of language, when roused to resentment from
a sense of injury ; and experience has ever since strengthened
the opinion, that mildness of disposition and benevolence are
very often accompanied with the sharpest tone of invective
against injustice and cruelty. The solicitude of Junius for
the welfare and respectability of that man of mixed qualities,

* Scott.

JUNIUS A NOBLEMAN, RICH AND POWERFUL. 103

John Wilkes, extended even to his personal behaviour in the
streets. " It is your interest," says he, " to keep up dignity
and gravity ; beside, I would not make myself cheap by walking
the streets as much you do."

Moreover, Junius appears to have been in the first rank
of subjects, like one who had retired from high office in disgust ;
but who, seeing the machinery of government in disorder, and
operating to its own destruction, was nevertheless heartily
disposed to save it from utter ruin, provided the aiding hand
itself remained unseen ; and it was this which formed the
puzzling cloud that surrounded him, giving a fearful halo of
mystery to most things he advanced. He was indeed an
ingenious inquisitor. He tortured his victims alternately with
appalling truths, solemn doubts, and vexatious questions ; or
with imperfect satisfaction, just sufficient to create a thirst he
meant not to satisfy. Anon, he gave them partial information,
and inspired them with a dread of hearing more. Both courts
were conscious that he could raise up spirits from the vasty
deep of the " infamous peace." * So situated and circum-
stanced, he predicts events then only unfolding, and that in
a solemn tone of anxious solicitude, and in a style oracular.
Wearing the semblance of a superior being, he was frightfully
magnified by the magical influence of invisibility.

In what prose writer do we meet finer figures, more apt
allusions, or happier metaphors, especially when descending
from the region of his superiority, he shows us, in accents of
affability, the plant with its pregnant buds ; and, alluding to
the season, describes, in anticipation, its coming fruit whether
good or evil. Looking into the seeds of time, the seer actually
foretold which grain would grow and which would not ; and
we Americans have accordingly hailed him a venerable prophet.

Junius exhibits abundant evidence of his entire devotion to
his country. He regards England tantamount to all the rest of
the world, and would fain be to Britain what the god Terminus

* See Junius's Letter to the Duke of Bedford, September, 1769.

104 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

was to the Romans, who, when all their other deities were
giving way, swore he would not stir an inch for Jupiter.* He
treats with qualified respect the sword and helmet; and while
he pays due homage to the crown and sceptre, he, now and
then, casts a look of displeasure, if not disdain, on the wearer ;
for there is a feeling too strong to be concealed, and too
natural to be feigned, pervading most of these addresses, which
distinguishes them from the mere Shakspearian efforts of genius.
No ! there is a pencilling that could not be bought, as could the
labors of Dryden and Johnson ; a manner beyond all rules of art.

Carefully polished as some of these letters are, this hides not
a something partaking of a morbid, or else a septuagenarian
fretfulness, or both, betraying the frail and feverish being, and
linking him to earth in despite of his boasted ethereal umbra.
This is discoverable in some of his private letters to Wilkes
and to Woodfall. Here we see him in his gown and slippers ;
but in his public letters he appears full-dressed, stern, and
without a smile. His closing letter may be an exception to
this remark. It is addressed to Lord Camden in terms of hiedi
consideration and esteem, and with evident traits of equality ; yet
is it calculated for effect. f It looks like the art of the history
painter, who sets off by contrast the odious character of an in-
dividual. Thus a skilful French painter,! in his picture of the
first murderer, has added to him the figure of a beautiful
woman, and two lovely children, in order to make the hideous
appear more horrible in the countenance of Cain. So in this
moral painting by Junius, he touches and retouches his picture ;
and by artful contrast in the composition, and deep Rembrandtian
shades, the figure starts horribly from the canvass, beguiling
the judgment through the imagination.

The style of Junius is peculiar, pure, laconic, and magiste-
rial ; and sometimes a provoking manner, a cross-examination

* Restitit, et magno cum Jove templa tenet. Ovid.
f Its object was to render Lord Mansfield odious.
\ David.

HIS STYLE PECULIAR. 105

style, occasionally approaching to truculency. But when he
calls forth his full powers, as in his first Letter, his famous one
to the king, and a few others, then he speaks with the studied
caution of a Mansfield ; force, dignity, and precision pre-
dominate over the rules and flowers o( rhetoric. He ap-
pears to sit upon a rock and look down on his subject, and
his language is that of one who has nothing to wish for
himself or to fear from others. He seems not to act from
suggestion, advice, or agency, but his expressions of reso-
lution and determination come from his all-sufficient self;
he looks Independence personified. Did we believe entirely
in the ancient doctrine of the transmigration of souls, we might
easily imagine the soul of Brutus to inhabit the body of this
British Peer. In his stern principles and energetic conduct,
he appears another Hercules, who, having heard the lowing of
the beasts, straightway goes to the cave of the robber, and
seizing Cacas, by a strong and relentless gripe, drags him
forth amidst his fire and smoke to light and punishment.*

In the catalogue of great names, where between the years
1765 and 1770 can we find such a demi-god with his club
and lion's skin ? Certainly not among those guessed to have
been Junius. Is there, in any one of those supposed au-
thors of the Letters in question, a writer whose pages are
marked and dignified by that energetic, nay caustic style,
which signalizes those dread tablets at which rogues, military
commanders, ministers, nobles, princes, and kings trembled ?
Compare the corrosive-sublimate style of this ghost of Junius
Brutus with the liquid laudanum strains of half a dozen
gentlemen to whom they have been from time to time at-
tributed, and dismiss the notion of their competition for ever.

If sensible and learned men vary in their taste concerning
painting, poetry, music, and architecture, it is no wonder that
they differ in opinion concerning the short compositions of
Junius. An anecdote may illustrate my meaning. A painter

* Virgil, Mn. viii.
14

10G CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

asked permission to copy an admired head in my possession ;
I consented on condition that he showed me the copy. After
detaining the picture a long time, he returned it ; when I asked
to see his copy of it. He smiled and shook his bead, — " I
have labored," said he, " again and again, and tried repeatedly,
but cannot fetch out the expression, or even the coloring of
the original. I have never failed to satisfy myself before with
other pictures. What can be the reason now ? " I replied,
" Because, Sir, that head, simple as it seemeth, is the pro-
duction of a master* intent on pleasing himself, being his
own countenance." Every great master, whether painter or
writer, has a certain inimitableness of his own.

So an adroit literary man may make a tolerable imitation of
some numbers in Johnson's Rambler, or some chapters of
Gibbon's Roman History, or any sermon of Dr. Blair ; but
let him try his hand on Dean Swift, Dryden, or Addison, and
above all on Junius ; — or to come quite up to the point at
once, let him read over some of the best Letters of Junius, so
as to make himself master of the subject without committing
the words to memory, shut up the book, and then write a
letter on the very topic, as near the matter and the style as he
can, and afterwards compare his imitation with the original ;
and he will see and feel the difference. An able and ingenious
writer would find less difficulty in imitating the rich and florid
style of Gibbon, the Rubens of British historians, than Junius,
their Michael Angelo.f

Disregarding, at present, the flowing drapery of Junius,
his style and diction, let us attend to the man himself, and
notice some particulars which stamp the mind of the writer, if

* Stuart.

f Some of our own ingenious political writers have now and then
struck out shining paragraphs very like some of the brilliant pages of
Burke. But the word like has a wide range. Simia quam similis
nobis ! How like a man is a monkey ! But this imitative little
creature, how unlike him who stands at the head of the visible series
of animated creation !

HIS STYLE PECULIAR. 107

they do not indicate his rank in society. The foremost of these
is liis daring resolution, and invincible determination to remain
unknown, and the next is his power of carrying his project into
complete effect. This is, in my opinion at least, a weighty
consideration, as it confines our inquiry to a very small circle ;
for who among the great men of that day enjoyed a character
so great, so very great, as voluntarily to endure and patiently
allow such a deduction of fame, both contemporary and
historical, as the authorship of those celebrated Letters would
have conferred for ever on his name ? How few, how very
few of them would have been contented to go down to the
silent grave and bury there a crown that might shine as con-
spicuously as that which fame bestowed on Cicero ? Scrutinize
the British list of great men from 1755 to 1760, and from
that period to the year 1773, and name us the man sufficiently
provoked, and likewise capable of writing those masterly
appeals to George the Third, to his ministers, to the city
authorities, and to the people. The Earl of Temple was
replete with whig principles, had full enough ardor, inde-
pendence, and resentful feelings; but he wanted the talents
for such a display of them as Junius has made. We repeat
the question, — Who was so rich, so very rich in fame, so
wrapt up in glory, as to conclude that he could afford such a
subtraction from his stock of it, through a consciousness that
he should leave enough behind to satisfy a wise man ? This,
considerate reader, is not a light argument.

The tantalizing, nay, solemn truths uttered for years from
beneath a mask, were often pronounced in the spirit of bitter
invective, sharpened frequently by satire ; so was the coarse
satire of Chrysal, which preceded Junius about ten years ; but
there was as much difference between the weapons of the one
and of the other, as between the rude arrows of our Indians and
the shafts of Apollo. Those flew at random from behind
trees and stumps ; these never missed their aim, and came
from on high, rankling the wounds they made, even to mor-
tification. This so exasperated the objects of attack, that

108 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

nothing but the protecting cloud of personal invisibility secured
the agent from the extremity of dire revenge ; hence every
thing like truth was considered secondary to safety. Junius
was aware that his invisibility was a vital secret. Had he
been discovered, whither could he have fled for shelter ?
This country was then part of the realm ; and sovereigns and
their ministers in every country upon earth were of course
his deadly enemies ; for the dagger, the pistol, poison, and the
bow-string are not so much to be dreaded as free and un-
shackled reason.

As Junius could not but apprehend the utmost danger to
his life, fame, and fortune, it is no wonder that he exercised
all the faculties of his mind, and feelings of instinct, to secure
concealment and elude discovery ; and taking every thing we
know, and every thing we have a right to suppose, we must
conclude that none but a very superior character, a man
fortunately situated and circumstanced, could have preserved
the all-important secret. I conceive that in the city of Paris
it would have been as impossible as in a camp of veterans ;
but in London, where there is no police, but where the
manners of the people are, in a great measure, a substitute for
it, the exploit was less difficult. Yet even there, allowing for
the liberty of the press, it will ever remain a surprising fact,
that such a political correspondence between an obnoxious
writer, feared and detested by the whole administration, and a
well known respectable printer, should nevertheless continue,
with very little or no interruption, almost three years, and after
all remain undetected !

If Mr. Woodfall was ignorant of the person of Junius, it
seems that he knew his rank, as he approaches him with the
greatest deference, if not awe, as if addressing a superior
being. After Junius had intimated that he should write no
more, Woodfall addresses him thus ; " I hope you will believe
that however agreeable to me it would be to be honored with
your correspondence, I should never entertain the most distant
wish that one ray of your splendor should be diminished by

HIS STYLE PECULIAR. 109

your continuing to write." And when Junius tells him to
make the most of his collection of Letters for his sole benefit,
he. adds, with the friendly manner and feeling of high rank to
an inferior, — " Let your views in life be directed to a solid
however moderate independence. Without it no man can be
happy, nor even honest."

It appears that the great unknown excited a still greater
awe in the imagination of the hardy Mr. Wilkes ; a sort of
man little disposed to bow the head or bend the knee in
reverence to any body or any thing. Yet in answer to a long
and very interesting private letter written by Junius to that
celebrated man in August, 1771, he betrays an awe so great as
to partake of a degree of profaneness. These are his words.
" 1 do not mean, Sir, to indulge the impertinent curiosity of
finding out the most important secret of the times, the Author
of Junius. I will not attempt, with profane hands, to tear the
sacred veil of the sanctuary ; I am disposed with the in-
habitants of Attica to erect an altar to the unknown god of
our political idolatry ; and will be content to worship him in
clouds and darkness."

This we conceive to have been the utmost reverence and
respect that John Wilkes could feel towards an unknown
superior intelligence, and to have been as heartfelt and sincere-
worship as any heathen ever offered up at Athens, Rome, or
Corinth ; and it is a curious modern specimen of what we read
in our admired classics.

John Wilkes was by no means an ordinary man in talents, in
education, and firmness of purpose, and if we view him alone
by himself, he grows in our estimation ; but if we compare
him with his unknown correspondent, he shrinks in the com-
parison. The three long letters written to Wilkes in August and
September, 1771, are, in my opinion, admirable as it regards
the principles and views of the writer. What do we see in
them? Hercules coaxing a froward child to that, which it
bad not mind enough to comprehend, relish, and act up to.
The difference between the master and the disciple is striking*

110 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

After the failure of this laborious essay on the part of Junius,
he appears to have given up Wilkes and all the " horned
cattle " of the city, and to have retained a good opinion of
none but Mr. Sawbridge. He writes thus to his printer when
about ceasing his hazardous labors — " I am weary of attacking a
set of brutes whose writings are really too dull to furnish me with
even the materials of contention." And again, about the same
time, and on the same subject — " Try Mr. Wilkes once more.
Speak for me in a most friendly but firm tone, that I will not sub-
mit to be any longer aspersed." Junius found that he h'mself
was attacked in the newspapers by the city sub-factions, and he
suspected that the Rev. John Home was the writer; and there-
fore he hints to Woodfall that it was hardly honorable that Mr.
Wilkes should leave him alone to defend himself, but that he
ought to take up the cudgel in his support, and therefore he sub-
joins in a tone of disgust, — " Between ourselves, let me recom-
mend to you to bemuch on your guard ivith patriots ." In another
private letter to his printer, — " I meant the cause, and the public.
Both are given up. I feel for the honor of this country, when
I see there are not ten men in it who will unite and stand
together upon any one question." He speaks to Wilkes of
the insidious arts of Mr. Home, and urges " the total and
absolute renunciation of Mr. Home." This is said in a long
letter to the "patriot" of 21 August, 1771, which Junius
concludes thus ; — " This letter, Sir, is not intended for a
correct or polished composition ; but it contains the very best
of Junius's understanding;" and winds up with saying, — "I
am heartily weary of writing," he. In another private letter
to Mr. Wilkes, September 7th, he says, — " A man, who hon-
estly engages in a public cause, must prepare himself for
events winch will at once demand his utmost patience, and
rouse his warmest indignation. I feel myself, at this moment,
in the very situation I describe ; yet from the common enemy
I expect nothing but hostilities against the people. It is the
conduct of our friends that surprises and afflicts me." We
refer the reader to the History of the Minority, printed in

HIS STYLE PECULIAR. HI

London in 17G6 ; and the publications of the day between
1768 to 1771, when Lord Chatham was incessantly abused
for accepting a peerage. Junius wished to make use of
Wilkes and of Parson Home in the serious business of
reformation, but was repeatedly thwarted by the envy and jeal-
ousy of the one, and the vanity of the other. When addressing
the first he curbs his indignation and says, — " But my zeal,
I perceive, betrays me; 1 will endeavour to keep abetter
guard upon my temper, and apply to your judgment in the
most cautious and measured language." He then comments
in his masterly manner upon the resolutions and doings of the
Supporters of the Bill of Rights convened at the London
Tavern, July 23, 1771 : in which he appears like a man of
great experience and mature judgment, talking to children
who could not or would not understand him. He suspected
Mr. Home to be the Marplot of his plan.

The difference in the ability of the two writers, Junius and
Wilkes, will appear even on a slight examination. The latter
says to his unknown correspondent, — " These three days I
have had the shivering fits of a slow, lurking fever, [a strange
disorder for Wilkes,] which makes writing painful to me.
I could plunge the patriot-dagger in the heart of the tyrant of
my country, but my hand would now tremble in doing it."
Again, speaking of revising and preparing for publication cer-
tain productions of the supporters of the Bill of Rights, he
says to Junius, — " At all times I hate taking in other people's
foul linen to wash ! " Of what loose and flimsy texture are
those letters from the trembling hand of the hero of the " North
Briton," contrasted with the firm and everlasting warp and
woof of those by Junius ! whose work is beautiful as strong,
uniting admirable materials with high finish and splendor.

Amidst venality and corruption, Britain's proud metropolis,
the emporium of the world, the largest, richest, and freest
city in Europe, comported herself nobly, notwithstanding some
aberrations in a few of her officers, partly owing to an infection
with which she had been inoculated by Lord Bute, and partly

112 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

from a morbid jealousy engendered among themselves ; the
symptoms of which ran highest in the Rev. John Home.
Had he and his quondam friend Wilkes possessed genuine
moral greatness, he would have followed the wise counsel
of Junius as expressed in his three admirable letters already
cited, particularly as it respected the preference of Alderman
Sawbridge for the next Lord Mayor. Mr. Home, afterwards
better known by the name of Tooke, without the imputation
or suspicion of corruption, lost half his weight by turning
a deaf ear to the advice of Junius given through the medium
of Mr. Wilkes.

John Home Tooke had talents, industry, learning, and
ambition ; but his emulation, taking a low direction, involved
him in perplexities, which, for that time, ruined him with his
party. He had to do with men of business, who judged better
but wrote worse than the the Parson. The ability to contrive,
plan, and display upon paper, is a different matter from that
adroitness in execution, with which men of business are familiar.
If a little learning be a dangerous thing, a great deal of it is a
cumbersome thing, impeding the march; and the possessor of it
is like a debilitated modern recruit staggering under the armour,
accoutrements, arms, and provision of an old Roman soldier.
Or, to use a better figure, John Home Tooke was at that time a
weed, that is, a fine plant out of his proper place ; hence he with-
ered ; and when afterwards transplanted into his proper soil at
Purley, he grew finely, and flourished as all the world has seen.
We shall have occasion to speak of this fortunate man hereafter,
and shall only remark now, that Junius held in high honor the
city of London ; but the faction, or rather sub-faction in it
in 1771, nearly exhausted his stock of patience. He con-
sidered the reverend and learned gentleman just mentioned as
the soul of it ; and this roused his indignation, and carried
him a little too far in his expression of it ; for he imputed to
Home a corrupt court influence, from which he was entirely
free. This gentleman was constitutionally honest and able ;
but not in his right situation. How few, how very few are the

HIS WRITINGS PATRIOTIC AND PURELY ENGLISH. H3

instances among ourselves, where clergymen who have de-
scended from the pulpit into the dusty arena of politics, have
not been there bewildered, blinded, and lost ? A man cannot
serve two masters.

Great ability is manifested in Junius'' s first three private let-
ters to John Wilkes, Esq. ; and in his fifty-ninth letter addressed
to the printer of the Public Advertiser, on the 5th of October,
1771. I consider the sentiments contained therein as the
native, heartfelt, genuine, unbought language of English
patriotism, principles which no man can counterfeit, and which
Junius found it so hard to smother, and so hazardous to
express. In his public letters, he inculcates this principle, —
" That we should not generally reject the friendship or services
of any man, because he differs from us in a particular opinion."
He adds, — " I care not with what principles a new-born
patriot is animated, if the measures he supports are beneficial
to the community." " The spirit of the Americans may be
an useful example to us. Our dogs and horses are only
English upon English ground ; but patriotism, it seems, may
be improved by transplanting." *

" To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the
present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive
extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions
of the greatest part of mankind, the necessary effects of the
ignorance and levity of the vulgar ; but nobody, I believe, will
consider it merely the language of spleen or disappointment, if
I say there is something alarming in the present conjuncture.
There is hardly a man in or out of power who holds any other
language. That government is at once dreaded and con-
temned ; that the laws are despoiled of all their respected
and salutary terrors; that their inaction is a subject of ridicule,
and their exertion of abhorrence ; that rank, and office, and
title, and all the solemn plausibilities of the world, have lost

* How far does this sentiment differ from the well-known opinion
of the Earl of Chatham respecting the Americans?

1 1 4 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

their reverence and effect; that our foreign politics are as
much deranged as our domestic economy ; that our depend-
ences are slackened in their affection, and loosened from their
obedience ; that we know neither how to yield nor how to
enforce ; that hardly any thing above or below, abroad or at
home, is sound and entire; but that disconnection and confusion
in offices, in parties, in families, in parliament, in the nation,
prevail beyond the disorders of any former times ; these are
facts universally admitted and lamented." Such were the
sentiments and the language of the celebrated Edmund Burke
in 1770.*

It should be borne in mind that this deplorable condition of
things was in the reign of a moral king, in the morning of life, a
man of business more than of pleasure, addicted to no vicious
habits, whose domestic virtues and rules of justice reflected
honor upon his high station. What shall we say in explanation
of that state of perplexedness which embarrassed the government
of George the Third ? Juvenal has said it for us, — " Nullum
Numen abest, si sit Prudentia." In the early part of his life,
and in the seclusion of his palace, there was no Prudentia or
Minerva to listen to ; and the consequence was, it first
opened the mouth of Junius, then raised up a Burke, and
finally engendered a Peter Pindar, and every one of them
operated more or less powerfully on the public mind.

It was at this gloomy and ill-boding period of their nation-
al affairs that Junius called, in the tone and accents of
an aged and weary patriot, on Lord Camden saying — " My
Lord ! I turn with pleasure from that barren waste, in which
no salulary plant takes root, no verdure quickens, to a char-
acter fertile, as I willingly believe, in every great and good
qualification. I call upon you in the name of the English
nation, to stand forth in the defence of the laws of your
country, and to exert, in the cause of truth and justice, those
great abilities, with which you are entrusted for the benefit of
mankind."

* Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents.

MR. BURKE'S OPINION OF HIM. ] 15

The task assigned to Lord Camden by Junius was against
Lord Chief Justice Mansfield ; but Camden recoiled probably
in despair from an undertaking in which a Junius had failed.
We would here remark, in passing, that Lord Camden was the
most intimate political and private friend of Lord Chatham,
and executor of his last will.

Is it not prominently remarkable that Junius, who called
on John Wilkes to aid him in the great cause of the people,
never once calls upon the Earl of Chatham, that steady and
consistent whig, that stern defender of constitutional principles,
that renowned and incorruptible statesman, and most powerful
orator, to lend a helping hand to save the ship of state in her
sad plight and dangerous situation ? Is it not almost as sur-
prising that the great reformer never once names the Earl of
Temple, Chatham's brother-in-law and confidential friend, a
whig of the first stamp, the heroic combatant of " general
ivar rants,'''' without whose exertions, and pecuniary aid, John
Wilkes might have sunk into obscurity ? And is it not
somewhat strange that Lord Chatham, copious as the matter
of his speeches is, never once utters the name of Junius,
even when defending his printer Woodfall ? • Neither Mr.
Burke nor Lord North was so fastidious. The first spoke
of him in the House of Commons thus — " How comes this
Junius to have broke through the cobwebs of the law, and to
range uncontrolled, unpunished through the land ? The myr-
midons of the court have been long, and are still, pursuing him
in vain. They will not spend. their time upon me, or you, or
you, [nodding to several.] No ! they disdain such vermin,
when the mighty boar of the forest, that has broke through all
their toils, is before them. But what will all their efforts
avail ? No sooner has he wounded one, than he lays down
another dead at his feet. For my part, when I saw his attack
upon the King, I own my blood ran cold. I thought he had
ventured too far, and there was an end of his triumphs. Not
that he had not asserted many truths by which a wise prince
might profit. It was the rancor and the venom with which I

HG CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

was struck. In these respects the North Briton is as much
inferior to him, as in strength, wit, and judgment. But while
I expected in his daring flight his final ruin and fall, behold
him rising still higher, and coming down souse upon both
Houses of Parliament. Yes ! he did make you his quarry,*
and you still bleed from the wounds of his talons. Nor has
he dreaded the terrors of your brow, Sir.f He has attacked
even you ; he has, and I believe you have no reason to tri-
umph in the encounter. In short, after carrying our royal
eagle in his pounces, and dashing him against a rock,J he has
laid you prostrate. Kings, Lords, and Commons are but the
sport of his fury.

" Were he a member of this House, what might not be
expected from his knowledge, his firmness, and integrity ?
He would be easily known by his contempt of all danger, by
his penetration, by his vigor. Nothing would escape his vigi-
lance and activity. Bad ministers could conceal nothing from
his sagacity ; nor could promises, nor threats induce him to
conceal any thing from the public."

The staid and even-tempered Lord North was not too
fastidious to mention the terrific boar of the woods. He
said of him, " When factious and discontented men have
brought things to this pass, why should we be surprised at the
difficulty of bringing libellers to justice ? Why should we
wonder that the great hoar of the wood, this mighty Junius
has broke through the toils, and foiled the hunters ? Though

* QuaiTy. Game flown at by a hawk ; hence the phrase — he made
game of him. The word is unknown among the people of America,
where the royal sport of falconry is not yet introduced.

f Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons, had
remarkably large eyebrows jutting over his optics like a pent-house.
This is a fair specimen of Burke's ordinary oratory, and of Lord North's
also.

\ We know of no European bird large enough and strong enough
to carry away a great man and dash him against a rock. Must not
the orator have meant the American Condor ? the largest and strong-
est fowl of the air ; its wings being 18 feet from tip to tip.

LORD NORTH'S OPINION OF HIM. H7

there may be, at present, no spear that will reach him, yet he
may be, some time or other, caught. At any rate, he will be
exhausted with fruitless efforts ; those tusks which he has
been whetting, to wound and gnaw the constitution, will be
worn out. Truth will at last prevail. The public will see
and feel that he has either advanced false facts, or reasoned
falsely from true principles ; and that he has owed his escape
to the spirit of the times, not to the justice of his cause."

These are timid sentiments, plaintive and childish notes, to
come from the lips of a prime minister of Old England, the
man who had the ignorance and presumption to declare out
aloud, that he would bring humiliated America to his feet !

From the speeches just cited we learn Mr. Burke's opinion
of the extraordinary powers, integrity, patriotism, and intrepid-
ity bordering on temerity, of Junius. It is evident that he
regarded him, though invisible, with feelings of more than simple
wonder, — with astonishment approximating to dread. His
opinion corroborates the one which we have already advanced,
that the English public in search of Junius did not look high
enough. It is apparent that Burke looked up at his terrific
eagle.

As to " My Lord North," so everlastingly famous in this
country, his speech betrays marks of trembling anxiety in
every sentence. He moves softly, as if he were afraid of
waking " the great boar of the woods," who had been
whetting his terrible tusks before he went to sleep.* It is
equally evident that Lord North did not look down upon
Junius. It is difficult to preserve that gravity which becomes
our years, whenever we think of certain individuals to whom
the authorship of those celebrated Letters has been, from
time to time, attributed.

The deep solicitude of Junius for the public welfare is
strikingly apparent in his last private letter to Mr. Woodfall,

* We recommend this subject to some of the history painters in
this new country, where they abound.

118 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

in which he said — " If I saw any prospect of uniting the City
once more, I would readily continue to labor in the vineyard.
Whenever Mr. Wilkes can tell me that such an union is in
prospect, he shall hear from me. Quod si quis existimat me
aut voluntate esse mutatd, aut debilitatd virtute, aut animo
fracto, vehementer errat.* Farewell."

Here it seems, the " mighty Junius," so called by my Lord
North, hung up his bow. The two missile darts sent after this
date, seem thrown by an old and feeble arm and with a careless
aim ; like his Memoirs of Lord Barrington, every way un-
worthy his pen. His final private letter to Woodfall, of Janu-
ary 19, 1773, is more like himself; he says in it — " I have
seen the signals thrown out for your ' old friend and corre-
spondent.' Be assured that I have good reason for not
complying with them. In the present state of things, if I were
to write again, I must be as silly as any of the horned cattle
that run mad through the city, or as any of your wise aldermen.
I meant the cause and the public. Both are given up. I feel
for the honor of this country, when I see that there are not ten
men in it who will unite and stand together upon any one
question. But it is all alike, vile and contemptible. You
have never flinched that I know of; and I shall always rejoice
to hear of your prosperity."

Here is a deliberate and solemn leave-taking, with ample
reason why he should write no more ; and this determination is
handsomely acquiesced in by honest Woodfall, in his answer
to his unknown but highly venerated correspondent. Yet what
futile arguments have been, from time to time, obtruded on the
public as to the cause of his ceasing from his labor. The
cessation was natural and for sufficient reason ; why then
make a mystery of it, seeing his retreat was masterly, without
loss, and facing the enemy to the very last mancauvre ?

* But if any one believes me to be changed in ivill, weakened in
integrity, or broken in courage, he errs grossly.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

I am aware that a favorite theory has a tendency to bias the
judgment, and sweep us away, like a strong tide, from the
anchorage of reason into the open sea of uncertainty ; yet if
our theory be the fruit of long reflection, and founded upon infer-
ences drawn from independent sources of evidence, it is more
satisfactory than an assumed hypothesis. After a thoughtful se-
ries of years on this subject of our inquiry, and reiterated exam-
ination of facts as they rose ; and after disciplining speculation by
internal as well as external evidence, I had concluded and
settled down many years since in the opinion that William
Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was the author of the celebrated
Letters under the signature of Junius. Nay, furthermore,
that no other man had feelings just like them, and moreover
that no other man was capable of writing them ; and as length
of time, has, every year, added strength to this opinion, I am
now to assign my reason for it. But this will lead me to give

A Sketch of the Life and Character of WILLIAM
PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM.

Benigno Numine.*

This celebrated man was born in London, in the year
1708. He was esteemed at the University of Oxford a good
scholar, a keen disputant, and by some a poet. But his ruling
passion was the tented field, which he would have indulged
had not a cruel hereditary gout, that seized on him even before

* By the favor of Providence. Motto of the noble house of Chatii a m .

120 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

he left Eton school, clipped the wings of his martial ambition,
permitting him, however, to range the most fertile regions of an-
cient and modern literature. But for this hopeless disease, the
world might have seen him a Hannibal, a Marlborough, or
another Napoleon, and Britain deprived of the honor of rearing
the second, nay the first orator on the records of fame.

Who can look into the seeds of time as it regards the destiny
of man ? Who will say that it was not all for the best, that
young Pitt's energetic soul should be confined to a crazy case,
unsuited to its warlike propensities, and that he, who other-
wise would have blazed among the greatest of conquerors, was
allowed only to shine the first of orators? The great and
stern commander is, however, discernible throughout his
eventful life. Quick-sighted, prompt, sagacious, fearless,
haughty, and persevering, he never ceased to be a hero, a
Hercules, a demi-god in wielding the powers of a great nation,
and making the most powerful bend to his sway.

Among his most intimate companions at Eton school were
Lord George Lyttleton, Henry Fox (afterwards Lord Hol-
land), Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, and Henry Fielding.*
There was an intimacy between Mr. Pitt, Mr. George
Grenville, and Lord Lyttleton ; for several years they always
sat together in the House of Commons.

The gout drove young Pitt from the University before he
could take a degree in the arts, and compelled him to travel
on the continent in quest of health and mental improvement ;
and this so cultivated his mind, says Lord Chesterfield, that he
acquired a great fund of premature and useful knowledge.
His first speech in Parliament was in April, 1736. On his
return to England, having kept his gout at bay by travelling,
he accepted a cornet's commission in the horse-guards ; and
at the age of twenty-seven entered Parliament, where he shone
a prodigy of manly eloquence, and virtuous independence, in

* Author of that masterly picture of the English character and
manners, so well known by the title of Tom Jones.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 121

opposition to the minister Sir Robert Walpole ; and to his
sore annoyance, who, it is said, once exclaimed — " How shall
we muzzle this terrible cornet of horse ? " Sir Robert was
thought to have tainted his own judgment, and betrayed his
want of sagacity, by depriving the young aspirant of his mili-
tary commission. Mr. Pitt proved afterwards that he knew
the science of political resentment much better than the
minister. If you cannot kill a roaring lion at once, beware
how you wound him. Several years after, this wounded and
chafed lion " lay couching head on ground with cat-like
watch," and sprang upon this very Sir Robert Walpole, when
magnified in the eyes of a giddy world by an earldom, and
dragged him forth to answer for his deeds of corruption before
the nation, and indeed all Europe and America ; for the eyes
of all the world had long been turned on that shrewd minister
of two Hanoverian kings of England, George the First, and
Second.

Mr. Pitt's gouty malady was only arrested for a time by his
travels, but not subdued ; it recurred on his return home ; and
so entirely checked his martial ardor as to change its current
from the camp to the senate. It appears that all his early
exertions bore the stamp of a superior genius. Nor was this
all. His industry and application were commensurate with
his extraordinary powers of mind ; and he so sedulously cul-
tivated a rare assemblage of talents, that he was able to utter
whatever his great soul conceived, better than any other man
that ever spoke the English language, or perhaps any other.
Before he was six and thirty years of age, his eloquence
foretold his future fame.

When Sir Robert Walpole found that he could neither
bribe nor otherwise " muzzle the terrible cornet of horse," he
directed his hirelings and dependants to browbeat the young
Demosthenes. He doubtless remembered the thundering
orator of whom Philip stood more in fear than of all the rest of
Greece. But they met their match, and more than their

122 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

match, in the undaunted courage and superior force and skill of
" the terrible cornet of horse."

In the year 1740, Mr. Walpole, brother to the minister,
thought fit to reply to one of Mr. Pitt's speeches, by saying —
" Formidable sounds and furious declamation, confident asser-
tions and lofty periods, may affect the young and inexperienced ;
and perhaps the honorable gentleman may have contracted
his habits of oratory by conversing more with those of his own
age, than with such as have had more opportunities of acquir-
ing knowledge, and more successful methods of communicating
their sentiments." And he made use of some expressions,
such as " vehemence of gesture," " theatrical emotion," &c.
applying them to Mr. Pitt's manner of speaking. When Mr.
Walpole sat down, young Pitt rose slowly up and said, — " The
atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honorable
gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon
me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny ; but content
myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies
may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are
ignorant in spite of experience.

" Whether youth could be imputed to any man as a re-
proach, I will not assume the province of determining. But
surely age may become justly contemptible, if the opportuni-
ties which it brings have passed away without improvement,
and vice appears to prevail when the passions have subsided.
The wretch who, after having seen the consequences of a
thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has
only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object either of
abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his grey hairs
should secure him from insults. Much more is he to be
abhorred, who, as he advances in age, has receded from virtue,
and becomes more wicked with less temptation ; who prostitutes
himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the
remains of his life in the ruin of his country.

" But youth is not my only crime ; I have been accused of
acting a theatrical part ; a theatrical part may either imply

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 123

some peculiarities of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real
sentiments, and an adoption of the opinions and language of
another. In the first sense the charge is too trifling to
be confuted, and deserves only to be mentioned that it may
be despised. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use
my own language ; and though I may perhaps have some
ambition, yet, to please this gentleman, I shall not lay my-
self under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his dic-
tion or his mien, however matured by age or modelled by
experience. If any man shall, by charging me with theat-
rical behaviour, imply that I utter any sentiments but my
own, I shall treat him as a calumniator, nor shall any pro-
tection shelter him from the treatment he deserves. I shall,
on such an occasion, without scruple, trample upon all those
forms, in which wealth and pride always entrench themselves ;
nor shall any thing but age restrain my resentment ; age which
always brings one privilege, that of being insolent and supercili-
ous without punishment.

" But with regard to those whom I have offended, I am of
opinion, that if I had acted a borrowed part, I should have
avoided their censure ; the heat that offended them is the ardor
of conviction, and that zeal for the service of my country
which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress.
I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look
in silence upon public robbery."

See here the seed of an extraordinary indigenous plant ; the
germ of a rare and splendid flower and uncommon fruit. Nay,
who does not see in this early specimen of invective the future
full-blown orator ; the matter, the nature, the stern manner, and
inflexible temper of a minister, who, while he reasoned down
opposition, carried his victories with the rapidity of a mountain
torrent; and, when political principle and personal resentment
combined, could treat an aged member, brother of the prime min-
ister, like a miscreant. Nor did the contest end there ; but
while he proceeded in a more pointed and still severer strain, bor-
dering on abuse, a member alike aged with Mr. Walpolc, called

124 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

the young orator to order, Pitt turning upon him, exclaimed —
" If this be to preserve order, there is no danger from the most
licentious tongue ; for what calumny can be more atrocious, or
what reproach more severe than that of speaking without any
regard to truth ? Order may sometimes be broken by passion
or inadvertency, but will hardly be re-established by a monitor
like this, who cannot govern his own passion whilst he is
restraining the impetuosity of others?" *

These examples show us the man at an early stage of his
career ; a young Hercules, impetuous, overbearing, haughty,
and fearless, mighty in eloquence, and when provoked prone
to insolence, without regarding station, wealth, or age; in a
word, a very Junius. It seems from every account, written
and traditional, that the personal appearance of Mr. Pitt was
the happiest possible for a great orator. His countenance,
his eye, his voice, his collected and fearless manner partaking
of sternness and savouring of defiance, qualified, however, by
a peculiarly fascinating demeanour of good breeding, and
ever corresponding exactly with his subject, whether persua-
sive, indignant, objurgatory, or dictatorial, all constituted
him the very soul and substance of eloquence. His occasional
sickliness, his constitutional infirmity, even his gout aided his
oratory. With one arm in a sling, he seemed, while speaking,
as if able to direct Great Britain, and awe Europe with one
hand. He very early acquired a certain inimitable manner of
expressing strongly his indignation, or his contempt ; so that
he became often an object rather of dread than affection to his
contemporary legislators. He seldom restrained this propensity
towards men of the Walpolean school, and too often, perhaps,
gave way to a vituperative style, and a torrent of invective
resembling rancor ; particularly towards Murray, Lord Mans-
field. These endowments, acquirements, and talents gave
him ascendency in Parliament before he was forty years of
age, which grew into authority, and enabled him before he was

* See Almon's Anecdotes of Pitt, Earl of Chatham.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 125

fifty to bias greatly and, at times, to sway both King and Parlia-
ment. Nor is this to be much wondered at, when we consider
the education and mere military character of George the
Second, who, though quick and passionate, was placable and
manageable. Mr. Pitt with a steady temper, strong will,
sound judgment, and courage of every kind that never faltered,
set all in motion, and could regulate the machine of his
own making with the unerring power of a creative and con-
trolling mind ; and, whenever occasion required, adorned all
his movements with the most polished manners, and that
without confusion or hurry ; for cool judgment was very often
made to wait upon the promptness of his energetic mind.

However, Mr. Pitt's character was so purely English that
he could not give in to all the Hanoverian politics of his
sovereign. He thwarted his wishes in Parliament, derided
his electoral troops, opposed his system of German politics
generally, and was particularly active and successful in per-
suading Parliament to send home the Hanoverian and Hessian
troops brought into the island of Great Britain to help the
natives quell the Scotch rebellion in the year 1745. Pitt's
opposition to the aged monarch's long-fostered partiality to
Hanover, and to Germany generally, exasperated dislike to
hatred, so that he could not hear Mr. Pitt named without
visible emotion. Yet he continued to declare in Parliament
manfully and steadily that that state was alone worthy of
being denominated a sovereign and independent state, which
relies upon its own strength, without having recourse to troops
of another nation to preserve its existence. He therefore
denounced, in his usual strong tone and powerful manner, the
pityful policy of introducing foreign troops whether Russian
or German.

In opposing the views of George the Second, Mr. Pitt could
not avoid crossing the path of his favorite son the Duke of
Cumberland, commander-in-chief of all the land forces of
England. Yet the noble-minded Duke was constrained to say
to Mr. Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, " I do not know Mr.

126 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

Pitt ; but by what you tell me Pitt appears to he what is
scarce, — a Man, and that man an Englishman."

Notwithstanding his aversion, the king was told by the wise
men about him that he must call Mr. Pitt into office, that his
general character and popularity loudly demanded it. And
he was not long after appointed Paymaster of the land forces ;
and in this important, and till that time very lucrative office, he
manifested a punctuality, correctness, and disinterestedness
rarely found in the annals of kingdoms. He would receive no
more pay than the exact legal establishment ; and accordingly
paid a subsidy to the king of Sardinia entire without the usual
deduction of a certain per-centage as a perquisite. This es-
tablished his already high character for integrity throughout
Europe, and added to its great weight in England. In that
country, and in these United States, popularity is a mighty
engine that generally operates the public benefit, unless it
should be, like that of Sir Robert Walpole's, the fruit of
bribery, or when acquired by an ambitious military chieftain.

What added to the perplexity of those who liyed by princes'
favor was the advanced age of the monarch, whilst his son
Frederic, Prince of Wales, was in the vigor of life and health.
Whether to sit most respectfully under the solemn gloom of
the setting sun, or, in the dubious twilight, hail its rising, beams,
puzzled the will, and sadly embarrassed ambitious aspirants
and professed courtiers ; even Mr. Doddington knew not, at
times, which way to bow. However the court of the heir-
apparent at Leicester-House was more crowded than that of
St. James. Considering the advanced age of the father and
the middle age of the son, it is no great wonder that the Heli-
olaters outnumbered the Threnodians. Lord Temple and
Mr. Pitt appeared occasionally at both levees.

But the face of affairs was suddenly changed by the very
unexpected death of the Prince of Wale's. An event so un-
looked-for filled the opposition with the utmost consternation
and confusion ; for the adherents of his late Royal Highness had
planned a systematic opposition to the government of his

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 127

father, which was to operate under the direction of that hopeful
son, and his more able princess. Inferior as prince Frederic
undoubtedly was in point of intellect, he never amassed
private treasure, nor adopted any sinister advice with a view to
collect wealth.* He perhaps never looked so far forward. We
are unable to pronounce the character of Prince Frederic.
We can only infer that he was neither wise nor prudent ; for
he would discuss freely the future system of his government,
when his father's death should give him the crown. How
unlike the character of Britain's present monarch George the
Fourth ! f

The spouse of Prince Frederic, and mother of King George
the Third, was a German Princess ; and to her the whigs
attributed some of the most glaring instances of their national
disgrace. The private history of such exclusive people is not
to be depended on at this distance. Junius abhorred her ;
and Earl Waldegrave, governor of Prince George, afterwards
George the Third, despised her: J But who of us can by
sifting find out the truth in characters so out of the way of
common life. Through our camera however it does seem to
us strange, that a renowned nation, slow in judgment, rich in
wisdom, glorious in her constitution of government, haughty
and insulated, and most mighty in the richness of her com-
merce, should, in her customs, stoop so low, as to take from
among the poor and petty powers of the Continent, wives for
their kings and princes, after suffering as they have, from the
conduct of most of them.

* It may be superfluous, and it may not, to say to the American
reader, that Prince Frederic was the eldest son of George the Second.
His only brother was William, Duke of Cumberland ; a man of consid-
erable talents, and the favorite of his father, as well as of all the
nation except the Scotch.

f Our journals have just announced the death of this monarch ; and
the emblems of our own sovereignty have expressed our regret by their
position half-mast high on the shipping 1 in our harbours.

J See Waldegrave's Memoirs.

128 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

Is there sufficient reason for this strange custom ? Is there
sound policy in the usage ? Beside, what a dark shade does
this practice cast upon the ladies of the first rank in England !
It has heen suggested that it was to secure and put beyond
hazard Britain's Protestant religion. Indeed ! On what sort
of foundation is that church built which needs such slender
props ? On what can the church itself be erected, which is
endangered by giving to the sovereigns of England, queens of
British birth and education ? Do they in the land of our
forefathers think, that foreigners would feel a deeper interest
in guarding the throne, and maintaining the rights of English-
men, than natives themselves? Is it likely they would be more
disposed to inculcate on the minds of their offspring the
peculiar principles of the constitution ; or that they would at
any time support it with more steady bravery than native
Britons ? At this distance from that noble political planet these
things appear marvellous in our eyes.

Mr. Pitt was no friend to these foreign connexions. He
opposed with all his might certain subsidiary treaties with
Russia, and with certain German princes, for a supply of
troops for the defence of Hanover. But Mr. Pitt as Paymas-
ter, and Mr. Legge as Chancellor of the Exchequer, united in
refusing payment until these treaties made by the King had
been approved by Parliament. And for their non-compliance
both were dismissed from office ; and a new administration
was formed, who obtained from Parliament a vote for £100,000
for Russia, and £54,000 for the Landgrave of Hesse.* But
this administration, got up chiefly by his Royal Highness the
Duke of Cumberland, was to the utmost degree unpopular.

In the year 175G France began to march large bodies of
troops towards the sea-coast, and threatened an invasion of
England, than which nothing strikes more terror into those
islanders, from the cabinet to the watermen upon the Thames.
Soon after the important island of Minorca w r as taken by the

* See chap. xii. of Almon's Anecdotes of Lord Chatham.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 129

French, and Admiral Byng, who had nothing to do with it,
shot for it. A general dismay settled upon England, and
foreign troops were again called in, which increased the
public discontent ; for many weak people thought the kingdom
was given up to Hessians and Hanoverians. The storm of
public indignation increasing, the frightened ministry hastened
to give in their resignations. In this situation of things the
people turned their eyes on William Pitt, as their sure
iEgis of protection, and it did their judgment credit. Amid
their general depravity, inertness, frivolity, cowardice, and
want of confidence in their government, one man appeared to
stand their rock of defence, and that man was an invalid upon
crutches, — such is the power of mind over matter.

Mr. Pitt, a consummate orator, and all-powerful in Parlia-
ment, knew how to speak better than any other man, and
he knew how to be silent, which saving-knowledge Edmund
Burke never attained. In the session of Parliament which
began on the 11th of January 1753, and ended 7th June in the
same year, Mr. Pitt was silent. In that which commenced on
15th of November, 1753, and terminated in April, 1754, he
took no part in the debates. In the same year the Parliament
was dissolved. The new Parliament met in November, in
which session Mr. Pitt moved for leave to bring in a bill for
the relief of certain grievances endured by the out-pensioners
of Chelsea Hospital, whom he represented as cruelly oppressed
by an improper mode of paying their pensions. The poor,
disabled veterans who were entitled to that charity were, he
said, oppressed by a number of wretches who supplied them
with money in advance, they paying the most exorbitant
interest to certain usurers, who supplied them with small sums
to relieve their pressing needs. The bill was brought in by an
unanimous vote, and the aged and wounded soldiers were
delivered from a flock of harpies. This exertion shows the
true character of the man, and the fact ought to be added

130 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

to his everlasting monument, if its weight of laurels will allow
room for it.*

Wide-spreading and solid as was the reputation of William
Pitt, and great as was his influence, he increased both by marry-
ing a noble lady, sister of Richard Earl Temple, and of the
Right Hon. George Grenville, well remembered in this country
as the putative father of the obnoxious stamp-act. This lady
resembled her husband in the towering faculties of her mind,
and in the assiduous cultivation of them, and was among
women what her husband was among men. We desire the
reader to bear in mind this happy circumstance in the life of
Lord Chatham.

But to return to the perplexed monarch, who was left too
much alone with very few friends and disinterested advisers.
Among these the Earl of Waldegrave appears to have been the
most estimable as a personal friend ; for, after ceasing to be
the governor of George Prince of Wales,f he withheld himself
from public office though urged to it by the King. The Duke
of Newcastle, a generous nobleman of a singular character,
always hovered about the throne, ready to do any thing and
every thing ; and him the king authorized to apply to Mr. Pitt,
with assurances that he was perfectly reconciled to taking him
into his service. But the haughty commoner answered his
application somewhat abruptly, that he would accept of no
situation whatever under his Grace of Newcastle. This was
on the 20th of October, 1756. The Duke of Devonshire was
commissioned by the King to wait on Mr. Pitt, who was at
Hayes, his country-seat in Kent, and offer a carte-blanche, except
as to Mr. Henry Fox, whom the King wished to keep in his ser-
vice ; but Pitt gave a positive refusal to the royal request. J Upon

* See Junius's celebrated eulogy on Lord Chatham, Letter LV.

f Afterwards King George the Third.

\ Mr. Pitt's stubborn rejection of Mr. Fox is a mystery to many,
they having been school-fellows, and a friendship subsisting between
them all their lives. We shall explain this hereafter, when speaking
of the partiality of Junius for Lord Holland.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 131

this Mr. Fox immediately resigned his secretaryship. His
resignation produced confusion, and the Duke of Newcastle
and the rest of his Majesty's servants resigned also. This
distressed the King extremely, and left him in a situation not
to be envied. He complained bitterly to those about him
of their ill treatment.

" At the earnest request of the King, the Duke of Devonshire
took the Duke of Newcastle's place at the treasury, and again
waited on Mr. Pitt at Hayes, with a message from his Majesty,
requesting to know the terms upon which he would come
into office. Mr. Pitt gave his arrangement. Himself to be
Secretary of State ; Lord Temple, First Lord of the Ad-
miralty ; Mr. Legge, Chancellor of the Exchequer ; the Great
Seal to be in commission ; George Grenville, Treasurer of the
Navy; and James Grenville, a Lord of the Treasury."*

At Mr. Pitt's desire, Charles Pratt Esq., afterwards Lord
Camden, was made Attorney General.

What an idea does this convey of the mighty power and
the virtuous influence of William Pitt. His vast popularity
was a different thing from that which elevated John Wilkes,
and inflated him to a monstrous size, frightful to the eye
of reason and good order. Pitt had built for himself a solid
reputation grounded upon virtue, honor, an honest patriotism,
a character so respectable as in a manner to compel a monarch
who hated him, to solicit him repeatedly to become his prime
minister. With this great weight of character, and with a
matchless power of eloquence, Mr. Pitt became Prime Minis-
ter. In other words, he took the helm of a crazy ship in a
tempestuous season, with a miserable crew, and but three or
four good officers ; and yet, in due time, no ship of state, since
the ark of Noah, ever sailed the ocean so gallantly.

When Pitt came into office, he stipulated certain conditions
which were very extraordinary. He insisted that Lord Anson
should be excluded from the cabinet ; nor was that all, he in-

* Almon's Anecdotes of Chatham.

132 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

sisted that he himself should have the correspondence with the
officers of the navy instead of the board of admiralty, and the
King consented to it. Under this arrangement, Mr. Pitt
wrote the instructions to the Admirals of the fleet, and to the
Commodores and Captains, and these were signed by at least
three of the Lords of the Admiralty, while a sheet of white
paper covered the writing, so that they were kept in ignorance
of what they signed, while all despatches and letters came to
Mr. Pitt, who was Secretary of State, and at the same time
Prime Minister. Lord Anson retained his place as First
Lord of the Admiralty, under Pitt's limitation, and Mr Fox
took the pay office ; and with these officers Pitt commenced
his glorious administration in the year one thousand seven
hundred and fifty-s even ; the brightest period of English history
since the Revolution of 1688.

CHAPTER IV.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM, CONTINUED.

Let us look back on some of the ground we have run too
rapidly over.

George the Second had little or no affection for his eldest
son, and it would seem not much for his grandson, who was
never taught to respect him. Royal families, all the world
over, have less affection for each other than those of untitled
rank. The aged monarch had been deserted by his ministers
in a very unfeeling manner. In this state of perplexity, the
venerable Duke of Devonshire, knowing that the Sovereign
needed both consolation and advice, asked an audience ; in
the course of it, he entreated the King to recall Mr. Pitt and
place him at the head of the administration, as the only man,
who, by his extraordinary talents, unbounded popularity, and
integrity, could redeem the government from confusion. It is
said that the King shed tears on recounting the unfeeling
treatment of his late ministers, declared himself willing to
follow the advice of Devonshire, and therefore requested the
Duke to make application to Mr. Pitt, as we have related. In
the conference, Pitt said to his Grace, " My Lord! I am sure
I can save this country, and nobody else can." This would
have been arrogance from the lips of any other man. But he
knew the state of the country better than any one else j and he
knew also his own powers and means. This enabled him to
say to the King on his first private audience, " Sire, give me
your confidence, and 1 will deserve it." What can convey a
better idea of the venerable monarch than his prompt reply, —
" Deserve my confidence, and you shall have it." There is a

134 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

degree of sublimity in the sentiment of both. " George the
Second, though not possessed of brilliant talents, yet, to a strong
firmness of mind, he added a long experience of men and
public affairs, with a sufficient share of penetration to distinguish,
even in his present short acquaintance with Mr. Pitt, that he
w T as a bold and intelligent minister ; qualities which were per-
fectly agreeable to the King, because the want of personal
courage was not amongst his defects." * The minister per-
ceived, from time to time, that he could manage his master to
the benefit of his country ; and during the remainder of the
King's life they acted together in harmony, and the nation saw
and rejoiced at the union and cordiality of opinion between the
Sovereign and his popular minister upon all public measures.

Before Pitt assumed the administration of the government,
Britain had sustained losses and incurred disgraces in Europe,
in Asia, and America. All public transactions were reduced
to party feelings. This perplexed and discouraged officers
abroad, who knew not how to act, and they became of course
languid and dispirited in their military operations, and in their
civil governments. In this country, the French were en-
croaching every day upon us. Their soldiers were superior to
the British in discipline, and they had better officers, and
beside that, the friendship of the Indians. The defeat of the
over confident General Braddock, and the shameful inactivity
and incapacity of Lord Loudon, left open a wide avenue to the
conquest of these colonies.

When the two leaders of the late administration, the Duke
of Newcastle and Henry Fox, were constrained to quit their
hold on the government, they left enough of the leaven of the
Leicester-House faction behind to disturb and thwart the new
minister. The press teemed with abuse against him ; even
with sarcasms on his bodily infirmities. If the old court at
St. James's was restored from its gloom by the presence of
Pitt, the new one at Leicester-House was considered by some

* Almon's Anecdotes.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM.] 135

no better than an impure nest in which was hatched a brood of
evil designs against English and American liberty. A coterie
assembled there unfriendly to the old monarch and his minister.
The state of public manners was deplorable. Heroic virtue
seemed to have fled, leaving in its place indolence, a sickliness
of mind, a lack of spirit, a love of money with their miserable
offspring, a habit of gaming carried on with a view to indulge in
laziness, finery, and effeminacy ; and this engendered venality,
or an utter disregard to every thing but self-interest. This
deterioration of mannners and principles was bred and nurtured
in that hot-bed of corruption formed by Sir Robert Walpole.
It appears strange that a hardy, stubborn, courageous people,
as the British actually are, should have sunk into this effeminacy,
after giving such evidence of bravery and patient endurance in
the times of Charles the First and of Cromwell, and in the
reign of Queen Anne. But so it really was. A sunless state
of peace generated foul excrescences, and produced a morbid
condition in the body-politic. The people of England were
so sunk below their former character as to be absolutely dis-
mayed at the incursion of a few half-naked, ill-appointed
Scotchmen in 1745, and had recourse to foreign troops for
protection. Pitt derided this step with his utmost powers of
sarcasm ; and proclaimed that state alone a sovereign state,
" qui suis stat viribus, non alieno pendet arbitrio"

The condition of things was at that time deplorable. A
powerful writer of that day,* says, — " Let us, with due abase-
ment of heart, acknowledge that the love of country is no
longer felt, and that, except in a few minds of uncommon
greatness, the principle of public spirit exists not. That
mighty principle, so often feigned, so seldom possessed, which it
requires the united force of upright manners, generous religion,
and unfeigned honor to support. So infatuated are we in the
contempt of this powerful principle, that we deride the inhabi-

* Rev. Dr. Brown's Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the
Times. London, 1757. (Seventh Edition in 1758.)

1 36 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

tants of a sister kingdom for their national attachments and
regards."

That this was not the petulent effusion of a mere closet
philosopher, an opinionated priest, ignorant of the world and of
himself, who wantonly libelled his contemporaries, will appear
pretty evident from the language of Mr. Pitt himself, who*
about the same time, declared in Parliament his firm belief that
there was an aversion in the navy and military commanders
against any vigorous exertion whatever. He affirmed that
scarcely a man could be found with whom the execution of
any one plan, in which there was the least appearance of danger,
could, with confidence, be trusted ; that a shameful dislike to
the service every where prevailed ; and that the contractors for
the army and navy cared for little else than their own pecuniary
advantage. The first military operations on the coast of
France after Pitt came into office confirmed these assertions.
The reverend author just cited, when commenting on this
lamentable state of things, says, — " Necessity and necessity
alone must, in such a case, be the parent of reformation*
Whenever this compelling power, necessity, shall appear, then,
and not till then, may we hope that our deliverance is at
hand. Effeminacy, rapacity, and faction will then be ready to
resign the reigns they would now usurp ; one common danger
will create one common interest ; virtue may rise on the
ruins of corruption ; and a despairing nation yet be saved by
the wisdom, the integrity, and unshaken courage of some great
Minister." From what this powerful and solemn writer
says in another part of his treatise, we have reason to conclude
that he had Mr. Pitt particularly and individually in view.

Our great statesman, beside his rare talents and tried integri-
ty, had a silent, lofty demeanour which sometimes offended
English noblemen, and displeased foreign ambassadors. It
seems not to have been the ostentatious arrogance of a Cardi-
nal Woolsey ; but the laconic language and behaviour of the
man of multifarious business, partaking more of the military
commander, than the pride of high political station. Yet was he

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. J 3-7

remarkable for observing every rule of prescribed etiquette, and
every mark of deference towards George the Second. We
are told that no infirmity occasioned by his excruciating gout,
could ever prevail on him, though requested, to be seated in
his intercourse with the King. This was very far from dis-
pleasing a royal personage educated in the rigid rules of the
German military-school etiquette.

That Mr. Pitt was a sort of terrific object to the King and
his household may be inferred from an anecdote related by the
eccentric Horace Walpole, afterwards Lord Orford ; who
says, that all the Hanoverian party had strange notions of the
truculence of Pitt's virtue, and gives an almost ludicrous story
in proof of it. That " on the 21st of October, the palace, not
at all the scene of such actions, had one morning its solitude
alarmed by an early visit of Mr. Pitt. The pages of the back-
stairs were seen hurrying about and crying — Mr. Pitt, Mr. Pitt
wants Lady Yarmouth, [George the Second's mistress.]
The great stranger told her that he made her this abrupt
morning visit to explain himself, lest it should be thought he
had not been sufficiently explicit. He then repeated his
exclusion of the Duke of Newcastle [in his stipulation with
the Duke of Devonshire], and gave some civil though obscure
hints, — as if in losing his Grace, Hanover might not lose all
its friends," &c. This anecdote is pregnant with information.
It hangs on a pivot. It related to the memorable negotiation
with Mr. Pitt, for his return to office, when he pretended that
he would trust the tongue of none else but the bosom friend of
the monarch. No doubt the German lady was charmed with
the politeness of the great man, and with his confidence in her.
From that moment and for ever must she have chansred her
opinion of the terrific Mr. Pitt, and pronounced him the mirror
of graciousness and civility.*

* Such was the domestic agitation, when the great and turible man
came to speak with the confidante of Majesty, that all was in a flutter.
It was like the sudden appearance of a hawk in a barn-yard ; cocks

138 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

Pitt's ever memorable administration, which commenced in
the summer of 1757, was attended with the greatest advantage
to the nation. Disaster had followed disaster in Germany.
The Duke of Cumberland at the head of a fine army had been
defeated at Hastenbeck, and finally compelled to surrender to
the French, and sign the convention of Closter-seven.* En-
gland's powerful ally, the King of Prussia, was defeated, and his
entire destruction appeared inevitable. As to this country,
nothing was done or even attempted by Lord Loudon with his
large land force, nor by Admiral Holburne, one of the severest
persecutors of Byng, with a fleet of seventeen ships, while the
French had nineteen. In the East Indies they were equally
unsuccessful. While sad reverses were experienced abroad,
the internal condition of England was no better ; scarcity was
added to disorder. What a task had Pitt before him ! Yet
he ventured to say, — / can save this country. But it was not
until 1758 that the operations of his great mind were manifest-
ed to the world.

With extraordinary powers, Pitt entered the perilous road of
reformation, amidst an host of domestic enemies, who were
looking after him for evil. If he appeared in some respects a
dictator, he mixed a judgment, prudence, and wisdom with his
vigor, which secured to him the unanimous voice of Parliament,
and swelled the tide of his popularity. This, with an uninter-
rupted course of success in his military achievements, awed into
silence the remnants of the Leicester-House faction, and Pitt
was at one and the same time, the man of the people, and the
pride of the crown. He was an illustrious example of the
maxim that knowledge is power.

In the midst of frivolity, indolence, and venality, the proud
feelings natural to the British nation were severely stung by the

and cockerels, old hens, chickens, ducks and ducklings, all running in
a fright.

* The articles of this convention were fulfilled ahout as well as we
fulfilled the convention of Saratoga, when General Burgoyne surren-
dered his army to the Americans in October, 1777.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 139

keen reproaches of the minister in the House of Commons ; nor
were they less mortified at the cogent remarks of certain able
and zealous moral writers. Political pamphlets and moral
tracts were rare seventy years ago compared with the present
day, and attracted then more attention. These had their good
effect ; and they, with Pitt's eloquence, awakened the army, the
navy, and the representatives of the people in Parliament from
their dreams of indolence ; when all, operating together, roused
the slumbering energies of a luxurious race, who had been not
a little injured by the frivolity and effeminacy of the court of
Louis the Fifteenth : for though perpetual enemies, the French
gave the ton to the English then, as the English give it now to
the French (1830). An ostentatious nobility and the gambling
part of the gentry appeared to feel the reproaches from the
senate, the press, and the pulpit ; while those in the lower
ranks were touched by the keen satire of the drama, and by
the moral pencil of Hogarth ; and others were awakened to
recollection and remorse by the zeal of a new and meritorious
sect denominated Methodists, under their two celebrated apostles
Whitefield and Wesley. The London community started back
with shame and affright from the mirror thus held up to them.

In this state of morals, commerce lost, in some measure, its
wonted spring. The old Hanoverian King was but little
acquainted with that vital circulation of the heart's blood of old
England, while his minister, Pitt, knew thoroughly the first,
second, and third concoction of it, and he therefore watched
the health of Britannia with the anxious solicitude of a parent,
and the skill of a great physician. And in this respect our
admiration of the capacity, ability, and industry of the minister
is increased at every view of his wonderful powers of intellect
and of action, especially when we take into consideration the
untoward materials on which he had to operate.

" It is a peculiar praise of Mr. Pitt," says his biographer,*
" that in him were concentrated several powers of the most

* Mr. Thackeray.

140 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

opposite description, any one of which is sufficient to distinguish
its possessor, and the union of which in one man has generally-
been deemed impossible. In him, intense powers of application
were joined to the quickest perception, and the most brilliant
imagination to the soundest judgment. He astonished Europe
as much by the energy of his measures, as he shook the senate
of Great Britain by the thunders of his eloquence. As a min-
ister his whole attention was devoted to the interests of his
country, and perhaps history shows nothing equal to the system
of intelligence, the vigor of counsels, and the promptitude and
success of execution, which marked his administration. It was
now that the strenuous system of Mr. Pitt began to produce its
effects. As he had taken, in a great measure, the superinten-
dence of every department of government upon himself, his
authority and example now began to excite in others a proper
sense of their own responsibility. When they saw the minister
regular and indefatigable in his country's service, they also
were naturally impelled to adopt similar habits of application.
The generous were actuated by the noble ambition of the
minister, the mean and selfish knew that they had to deal with
one who would call them to a severe account for any dereliction
of their duty."

One of the first objects of Mr. Pitt's attention was the
protection of these colonies from the encroachments of the
French. But before he attempted conquest abroad, he took a
bold step at home, by sending out of the island every one of
those regiments of Hanoverians and Hessians imported by
George the Second to defend England against his Continental
and Caledonian enemies. To supply their place he proposed
to call out, train, and organize the militia, so regulated and
established as to allow with safety the sending fleets and armies
to make conquests in distant parts of the world. He used to
call their fleet " our standing army'''' ; and the army " a little
spirited body," so improved by discipline that that discipline
was worth five thousand men. " If," said he in Parliament,
i c you take care to discipline the farmer, the day-laborer, and

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 141

the mechanic, each of these may become a good soldier, and
always prepared to defend the country. It is dangerous to
our liberties, and destructive to our trade, to encourage great
numbers of our people to depend for their livelihood upon the
profession of arms." While planning and encouraging the
militia system, he paid due attention to improving the state of
the army and the navy. .Both soon felt they had a new
master, who knew the duties of his own nominal station, and
the obligations of theirs. He scrutinized with a keen eye
every part of their conduct, and caused every officer to do his
duty. The whole nation perceived the warmth of his spirit,
and the military experienced his electric fire even in this remote
region where I am now writing. Patriotism rose from the
couch of luxury, and sleepy ambition dreamt of buckling on its
armour.

No one understood better the maxim of Lord Bacon, that
" Method is the soul of science,''' 1 than Mr. Pitt. His habits of
order and arrangement did much, and his example more.
Though at times grievously tormented with gout, he was inde-
fatigable, regular, and punctual, and he took care to exact
those qualities from all under him. He not unfrequently gave
orders from his bed, and issued important military directions
when he could not use hand or foot. He was a strict econo-
mist of time. He avoided all ceremonious visits and formal
introductions. He declined levees, dinner and supper parties,
and all such moths of time, health, and business ; and the
result was a bright and beautiful procession of affairs. Industry
led the van, order maintained the centre, and despatch closed
the rear without a straggler.

It has been said that the British ministers resident at foreign
courts, during Pitt's administration, acknowledged the wonderful
exactness with which all communications were made to them,
and the clearness and perspicuity with which all their instruc-
tions were expressed ; an example of which may be found in
his instructions to and correspondence with Mr. Hans Stanley in
1761, respecting the preliminaries of peace with France. Sir

142 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

James Porter, who passed the principal part of his life in a
diplomatic character, often declared to his friends, that during
Mr. Pitt's administration there was such a correct knowledge,
and so active a spirit pervading all the departments of state
and the concerns of government, and such a striking alteration
in the manner as well as the matter of the official communica-
tions, that these circumstances alone would have convinced
him of Mr. Pitt's appointment or resignation, had he received
no other notice of the event.*

In the year 1758 the British arms were successful in every
quarter of the globe. Despatch, confidence, clear information,
and victory, proceeded from the master-mind of Pitt, who en-
joyed the entire confidence of his Sovereign and of the whole
Parliament. The almost lost honor of Britain was recovered,
and her natives awakened to a recollection of their former char-
acter. Great as were the successes of the year fifty-eight,
those of the year seventeen hundred fifty-nine were greater.
It may be called the year of unanimity and victory.

Yet in this year of splendid conquests the seeds of discord
were sown by that mischievous hand which every English-
man ought to execrate, and every American forgive. It
was owing to that never-failing source of dissension and strife
in little minds, the patronage of places, in which Lord Bute
interfered. He told the Duke of Newcastle, that he came to
him in the name of all those on that side of the administration,
meaning the Leicester-House party, who thought they had as
good a right to recommend as any other party whatever. It
was an attempt to injure Mr. Legge, Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, a highly valued friend of Mr. Pitt, and a great favorite
of the people, to accomodate one of Lord Bute's family. From
this small beginning* rose an opposition which shook the nation
to its extremities, and finally divided the Empire.

We have already glanced at the drowsy condition of things
before Pitt was called to the helm. George the Second had

* Almon's Anecdotes of the Earl of Chatham.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 14

now arrived at that age of man when business is a burden, res-
olution flags, and tranquillity is the summum bonum, yet without
any remarkable diminution of his judgment. France was at
war with England, and Spain betrayed her intentions of joining
in it, while the spirit of the English seemed in a measure
evaporated. In such a lulling atmosphere it is no wonder that
the military dosed on their arms, and the navy rested on their
oars, while the nobility and gentry were taxing their invention
to find out new amusements.

Such was the stagnant state of affairs when William Pitt
blew the blast of war in their ears, and roused the old British
spirit from its slumber. Its clangor was heard across the wide
Atlantic, and echoed back from these American shores.

" With joy we view'd the waving ensigns fly,
And heard the trumpet's clangor pierce the sky."

The success which followed in Europe, in Asia, and in
America, rendered the latter part of the reign of the second
George gloriously memorable, and justified Pitt in saying to
the Duke of Dorset, " I am sure, my lord, 1 can save this

COUNTRY."

Here follows a mere catalogue of captures, or epitome of the
Conquests achieved in Pitt's administration.*

1757.

" The Hanoverians and Hessians were sent home, and a
well regulated militia established ; by which the enemy saw,
that we were so far from wanting foreign troops to protect us,
that we could afford to send the national troops abroad.

The foundations were laid of the subsequent conquests.

Fleets and armies were sent to Asia, Africa, and America.

1758.
Shipping destroyed at St. Malo.

* Taken from " Anecdotes of the Life of the Right Hon. William
Pitt, Earl of Chatham," published by Almon.

144 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

Bason and shipping destroyed at Cherburg.

Emden recovered from the French.

Senegal taken.

Louisbourgh, and the Isles of Cape Breton and St. John's,

taken. *

Fort Frontenac taken ; and Fort Du Quesne taken.

Fort and Island of Goree taken.

Massulipatam taken. D' Ache's fleet defeated.

French army defeated at Crevelt. French fleet under Du

Quesne taken by Admiral Osborne.

French fleet drove ashore at Rochefort by Sir Edivard
Haivke.

1759.

French fleet under De la Clue taken by Admiral Boscawen.

Guadaloupe, Marie Galante, Desirade, he, taken.

Siege of Madras raised. Surat taken.

Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point taken.

The city of Quebec taken.

Complete defeat of the French fleet in the Quiberon bay.

French army defeated at Minden.

Shipping destroyed at Havre.

1760.

Thurot killed, and his three frigates taken.
French army defeated at Warburgh.

Montreal taken. Frigates, stages, and stores destroyed in
Chaleur bay.

All Canada subdued.
Dominique and Dumet taken.

1761.

Pondicherry taken; and all the French power in India de-
stroyed. Belleisle taken. French army defeated at Felling-
hausen.

* Great assistance was furnished by New England forces and com-
manders.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 145

1762.

Martinico taken. Granada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, and
the Havana, after Pitt's resignation, yet in consequence of his
plans.

To these conquests of territory must he added the destruc-
tion of the French marine, commerce, and credit ; France lost
the following ships of war, which composed nine tenths of her
royal navy : namely,

Forty-four ships of the line, viz. four of 84 ; eleven of 74 ;
two of 70 ; seventeen of 64 ; two of 60 ; two of 56 ; one of 54 •
and five of 50.

Sixty-one frigates, viz. four of 44 ; two of 40 ; eighteen of
36 ; two of 34 ; fifteen of 32 ; one of 30 ; one of 28 ; two of
26 ; eight of 24 ; two of 22 ; six of 20.

Twenty-six sloops of war.

Besides the advantages derived from all these conquests and
captures, Mr. Pitt left the late thirteen British Colonies in
North America, in perfect security and happiness ; every inhab-
itant there glowing with the warmest affection to the parent
country. At home all was animation and industry. Riches
and glory flowed in from every quarter."

On such an accession of wealth, power, and reputation to the
Romans, triumphal arches and superb columns would have
arisen in the " eternal city," to astonish after-ages with her
glory ; and to record the fame of the man by whose special
counsel and energy such a series of conquests had been achiev-
ed : and in the kingdoms of modern Europe, riches and the
highest honors would have been heaped on him who had been
a prime minister of such renown. Instead of that, pamphlets
were written by hired writers of the King's party, and in-
dustriously circulated to brand him as an apostate and deserter,
with every term of reproach, that malice could apply or deprav-
ity suggest ; and every art and method was practised in order
to change the public opinion respecting the glory of Pitt's
measures, the honor of his character, and the purity of his con-
duct. Lord Bute's faction dreaded his return to power, and
19

146 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

therefore nothing was left untried to destroy his popularity ; and
on his being created Earl of Chatham, their diabolical arts in
some measure succeeded. Had this been the work of the
whigs, it might not have been so surprising ; but it was the base
language of the Leicester-House faction. Newspaper essays,
oral scandal, and every other channel to the public ear, were
employed in calumniating the new Earl of Chatham. — Smol-
let* Mallet, Francis, Home, Murphy, and Maudit, were the
chief instruments used to effect in England what in some other
countries is often perpetrated by poison, f Such was the rela-
tive situation of the subject of this sketch.

The first year of Pitt's war was enough to discourage any
other man. It was marked with laziness, discord, weakness,
and dejection. Impediments were thrown in his way by the
followers of the Duke of Newcastle and Lord Bute, yet he
so far overcame them all that in the second year he frowned
down discord, shamed cowardice, gave aid and encouragement
to weakness, and chased away despondency. We should bear
in mind, that want of virtue was not only the characteristic
of the British ministry, but of the age, of which the contempo-
rary government of Louis XV. was another striking instance.

It is no wonder that the incessant clamor of the waste of
public money and Pitt's peerage and pension, raised by
hireling writers, should at length slacken the strong current of
his popularity. But it soon returned to its former channels
with increased force, which was nobly expressed in an ad-
dress by the city of London ; and cordially echoed by the
populace, as the following anecdote evinces. It has been

* Dr. Smollet was among celebrated writers what Tenters was
among artists, an exact painter of low life and mean characters. His
forte was the burlesque.

f " The sum paid to these and other hired writers, during the first
three years of the reign of George the Third, exceeded a hundred
thousand pounds : and the printing charges amounted to more than
twice that sum. And as to the few who might attempt to undeceive
the public, there was a political Judge (Lord Mansfield) ready to punish
their temerity." — Almon.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 147

customary for the Kings and Queens of England to go in grand
procession and dine in Guildhall on the next ensuing Lord
Mayor's day after their coronation. On this occasion the minis-
ter was honored, in all the streets through which he passed, with
the most enthusiastic tokens of applause. The people clung
about his carriage, uttering shouts of joy, while gentlemen and
ladies in the balconies and windows waved their hats and hand-
kerchiefs. The courtiers reported that his Majesty betrayed
signs of displeasure, that the respect paid to Mr. Pitt was greater
than that shown to himself. What added to the uneasiness of
royalty was the unanimity of Parliament in support of Pitt's
warlike measures, and the enormous sum (twelve millions sterl-
ing) voted to carry on the war. From that time the destruc-
tion of his popularity was the principal object of Lord Bute
and his superiors. It was an eye-sore ; — it was an object too
splendid to be looked at without giving pain ; and we, in this
distant region, have thought that the peerage and the pension
went far towards curing the evil eye ; and that it was a strong
mark of the monarch's characteristic policy. Thoughout all
nature, what an animal lacks in strength is made up in cun-
ning or venom.

On the 9th of October, 1761, Mi* Pitt gave in his resignation
to the King, and was thereupon created Earl of Chathamrwhh
an annuity of three thousand pounds sterling. On the same
day, Earl Temple, keeper of the King's privy seal, resigned
that office.

Henceforward we are to view Lord Chatham as a member of
Parliament only, with no other influence than his great char-
acter, matchless talents, spotless integrity, and overpowering
oratory. He doubtless found and felt the change. If obsequi-
ousness ceased to follow him, and confidence stood aloof, it was
occasioned by no alteration in his sentiments or change in his
principles. As a member of the House of Lords, not one of his
former political associates in the Commons could impeach his
conduct or his virtue, or reproach him for relaxation in the
great cause of the people. On the contrary, he never exerted

148 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

himself to greater effect. But the influence of corruption to
feed avarice and vanity, was every where discernible. In their
House of Representatives homage was paid to the distributor
of rewards, and the predominant desire was to get into a lu-
crative station, or to remain in possession of what they en-
joyed.

It was in October, 1760, that King George the Second un-
expectedly expired. He dropped dead on the floor from, lite-
rally speaking, a broken heart,* with no one near him, as
suddenly as if shot ; and that without any previous illness
whatever. One of the latest historians adds, — " weltering on
the floor. "f

Notwithstanding his general good character as a brave, hon-
orable, just, and well-intentioned man, few regretted his death.
Subjects become tired of a long reign ; and the Britons, whose
ruling passion is novelty, are more apt to be impatient than
most other people. They felt its tediousness before Mr. Pitt
took the helm. The vigor, activity, and success of his ad-
ministration dissipated, for a time, the drowsiness occasioned
by an octogenarian sovereign, and that perplexing state of am-
biguity which never fails to take place between the rising and
setting sun of a nation, when it is neither clear day nor dark
night, but a puzzling twilight. In such a season young Princes
are apt to lose the right way, and old monarchs to see dimly.
It is moreover a trying situation for ministers, domestic gov-
ernors, and young courtiers. Whoever takes the lead must
go before those highly privileged mortals ; and dull and posi-
tive dotage, and rash, inexperienced juvenility, are equally
conceited of their powers and jealous of direction.

" As to the successor of George the Second," and we
choose to cite the words of a reputable and intelligent British
writer, J " the effects of the wickedness of his advisers have

* A rupture of one of its ventricles.

f History of the Reign of George III., by Robert Bisset, LL. D.
London, 1803.
X Mr. John Almon was an eminent Bookseller in London, enjoying

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 149

been, and are still too deeply felt to be described in any terms
adequate to the injuries committed. Posterity, in a subsequent
age, [he might have added, or in another country where the
English is vernacular,'] when truth may be spoken, and the
motives of men laid open, will be astonished at the conduct
of their ancestors at this period." — " Notwithstanding this
confirmed state of modern depravity, Truth will continue to
have her worshippers ; and it may be presumed that they will,
in the present age, as they have in former ages, survive the
advocates of corruption and falsehood. It is to them only
that impartial history can address herself; from them only
she can expect protection. The betrayer of his country, and
the destroyer of public liberty, whether supported by a Com-
modus, or protected by a Faustina, may endeavour, by the
assistance of the slavish instruments of law, to intimidate and
to strangle her voice ; but conscious that she has Truth for
her shield, she ventures upon a task that will give a new com-
plexion to the public events of one of the most interesting pe-
riods in the annals of Great-Britain."

a very extensive correspondence, and the oracle of the times for news,
particularly what related to this country. His vendible Library was
the resort of men of the first consequence, — a kind of literary ex-
change, where convened, not only members of the House of Commons,
but men in higher station. Earl Temple was much attached to him ; and
to his Lordship he dedicated his Revieiv of Pitt's Administration. He
likewise published Anecdotes of the Life of the Right Hon. William
Pitt, Earl of Chatham, with his Speeches in Parliament, evidently
under the patronage of the Dowager Countess of Chatham, and her
brother Lord Temple, and also by the assistance of Lords Lyttelton,
Fortescue, and Carysfort, the Right Hon. W. G. Hamilton, Right Hon.
R. Rigby, Governor Pownall, and others.

We are indebted to Mr. Almon, and to his close follower, the Rev.
Francis Thackeray, for interesting information respecting the illus-
trious subject of this sketch. Mr. Almon was more a man of the fash-
ionable world, than Mr. Henry S. WoodfalL He was distinguished for
his gentlemanly manners and agreeable colloquial powers, which gave
him access to men of the highest rank and literary eminence.

CHAPTER V.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM, CONTINUED.

When George the Third came to the crown, there were
high expectations, and the most pleasing predictions, from his
being a virtuous young man and a native king. Every thing
was construed in his favor. His affability, contrasted with the
stiff formality of his German grandfather, seemed to confirm
this notion.*

Having no rakish seeds to germinate within him, he passed
the most dangerous period of youth with his dear mother
chiefly in the nursery. This subtle woman, finding she could
not make her son a Solomon, resolved on making him another

* Notwithstanding these flattering presages at the coronation, the
superstitious portion of the English people had their forebodings.
They remarked, that he was not born in a palace, but in a private man-
sion (Norfolk-house); that he was a seven-months child, which is con-
sidered by some above the vulgar as an indication of imperfection.
Whether his private history tends to strengthen this notion, we live
too far off to decide. His own mother told Lord Melcombe, that
George was a dull and timid boy without any apparent partiality for
any one. The Earl of Waldegrave, who was his governor, says of him,
that " he has a kind of unhappiness in his temper which, if not con-
querered before it has taken deep root, will be a source of frequent
anxiety. Whenever he is displeased, his anger does not break out
with heat and violence ; but he becomes sullen and silent, and retires
to his closet, not to compose his mind by study or contemplation, but
merely to indulge the melancholy enjoyment of his own ill-humor."
The same nobleman adds, that " his mother and the nursery always
prevailed over his preceptors and governor."

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 151

Joseph, that so she might still govern him when king. Those
who surround heirs- apparent know what key to touch. The
halo about the young king soon thinned away. The honey-
moon of accession had its natural wane, and it was not long
before England became filled with apprehensions and dis-
contents arising from a secret influence behind the throne.
Straws and feathers show which way the wind blows. It was
not deemed polite and proper to speak in terms of respect or
regret of the late king ; but to whisper reproaches for his at-
tachment and partiality to his electoral dominions and regard
for the whigs, to which noble phalanx they gave the invidious
name of republicans.

Pitt, the favorite of the people and pride of the nation, was
assailed in the most abusive style by hireling writers, chiefly
Scotchmen. Frequently their railings were more like savage
rage than the effusions of literary men, and in every instance
their invectives far surpassed the alleged cause. The voice
of these political drudges was strained to the highest pitch, in
order to convert the glory of Pitt's victories, under George the
Second, into crimes. Had the age, the region, or custom al-
lowed it, a poisoned draught, the stiletto, a Tarpeian rock, or
the old Tudor axe, would have terminated the glorious career
of the greatest and most disinterested prime minister the world
had, perhaps, ever seen.

Only two days after the accession of the native king, the
Caledonian Earl of Bute was added to the privy council. The
name of his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland was struck
out of the liturgy, or formulary of public prayers, of the estab-
lished church. Some thought that the unnecessary severity
inflicted by the Duke on the defeated Scotch, after his victory
at Culloden in the year 1745, was one cause of this affront.*

But the foul torrent of abuse poured upon Lord Chatham
and his most distinguished friends, was so violent and unprece-
dented as to produce counter-streams, which uniting formed a

to UB

It might possibly have been a church and state etiquette unknown

152 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

cataract that ultimately affected the repose of the throne, and
actually divided one half of the empire from the other. Of
these counter-streams the famous North Briton was the most
distinguished for its force and foulness. It was chiefly against
Lord Bute and the Princess Dowager of Wales. Nor was the
young monarch himself entirely spared, who, every one sup-
posed, might and ought to have checked and discouraged dis-
respectful expressions concerning the late king, his grandfather.

Mr. Wilkes was considered the principal writer in the North
Briton, in which periodical work the Scotch nation was held
up to derision by the most provoking satire. The character
of Wilkes was not adorned with every moral virtue, nor with
very extraordinary talents as a writer or speaker. He pos-
sessed, however, the stubbornness and perseverance of the
English character to the full. Yet was he a gay, witty, profli-
gate, and, at times, profane-spoken man, with remarkable con-
vivial powers, more calculated to shine at the court of a Charles
the Second, than at the levees of any king of the Brunswick
line. The passionate, vindictive, imprudent, and indeed ille-
gal conduct of the crown, made John Wilkes a man of very
great consequence, and procured him a degree of popularity
and favor from some men of high rank that was astonishing.
The sovereign people actually stepped forth, and protected
him from royal vengeance. The virtuous Earl of Chatham,
though he denounced him severely at first, at length advo-
cated warmly his cause in the House of Peers ; and the fas-
tidious Junius coaxed and flattered him in private letters, while
all the powers of royalty were exerted, for years, to crush
this man, — an outlaw, a bankrupt, a libertine, a man not
worth a farthing.

The undignified contest with a private subject, the inade-
quate, or, as most people called it, " the infamous peace,"
and the unwise quarrel and consequent war with these North
American colonies, mark strongly the natural and the kingly
character of George the Third. This character was not that
of cruelty or flagrant injustice, but an inflexible obstinacy and

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 153

ungovernable self-sufficiency, joined to a wheedling, cajoling,
manner, whenever he meant to carry a point with an individual
subject ; as in the case of the unhappy Mr. Yorke, noticed by
Junius.

When the three grand questions which distinguish the
reign of George the Third were discussed in Parliament,
the strenuous and decided part taken by the Earl of Chatham
changed the secret attacks of the ministry into open ones, for
his dismission from office had been projected by Lord Bute
from the king's first accession. The young monarch's mother
incessantly sounded in the ears of her son this short but em-
phatic maxim, " George I be King." The full meaning of
which was, — " Be not governed by Mr. Pitt, as was your
grandfather." To aid this solemn injunction, Bute formed
a connexion with those who were known to envy, or have a
political dislike of the great minister, as the versatile Duke
of Newcastle, and Lord Holland, who he knew had been
borne down and humiliated, again and again, by Pitt's all-
subduing oratory.

It was a darling object with the Butean or Leicester-House
party to emancipate the crown, as they termed it, from that
dependence upon the few great ivhig families, who had aided
and adorned the two preceding reigns, and who derived their
weight and consequence from the revolution of 1688, — a
work of their hands which put an end to the Stuart race of
kings, and placed the ancestors of George the Third on the
throne of Great Britain.

In spite of calumniating pamphlets and scandalous insinua-
tions, Mr. Pitt, though aware of the intrigues against him,
calmly maintained his station ; while the king himself never
failed to pay him the ostensible deference of a son to a
father, which, on a certain occasion, induced Lord Chatham
to say, that " his Majesty was the greatest courtier in his
court."

We have mentioned already the unanimity of the Parlia-
ment during Pitt's happy administration. It was in a degree

I 54 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

wonderful. Lord Chesterfield says, in a letter to his son,
" The estimates for the expenses of the year 1759, are made
up ; 1 have seen them ; and what do you think they amount

to? No less than twelve millions three hundred thousand

pounds ; a most incredible sum, and yet already all subscribed,
and even more offered ! The unanimity, in the House of
Commons, in voting such a sum, and such forces both by sea
and land, is not less astonishing. This is Mr. Pitt's doings,
' and is marvellous in our eyes.'' " *

In another letter, six weeks after, his Lordship says, " There
never was so quiet, or so silent a session of Parliament as the
present. Mr. Pitt declares only what he would have them do,
and they do it nemine contradicente (Mr. Viner only excepted),
but nemine quicquid dicente"

Soon after George the Third had taken that, for him-
self, fatal step, the dissolution of Pitt's unanimous Parliament,
Mr. Legge was dismissed from the chancellorship of the
exchequer. f This gentleman was of an ancient and noble
family ; born in the same year with Mr. Pitt. He first enter-
ed the navy, but soon left it, and became the domestic and con-
fidential secretary of the famous Sir Robert Walpole ; and had
the extraordinary good fortune to be much commended by
his son, Horace Walpole, who rarely praised any one. Mr.
Legge possessed sufficient good qualities to recommend him to
general and particular esteem, beside the association of his
name with that of Lord Chatham, during whose administra-
tion his talents and integrity as chancellor of the exchequer
were most usefully exerted in supporting the Herculean meas-

* Letter 348.

f The Exchequer is the court in England to which are brought all
the revenues belonging to the crown. It consists of two parts, where-
of one dealeth specially in the hearing and deciding of all causes ap-
pertaining to the king's coffers. The other is called the receipt of the
exchequer, which is properly employed in the receiving and paying of
money. It is also a court of record, wherein all causes touching the
revenues of the crown are handled. — Harris.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. ] 55

ures of that minister. When this able man, of inflexible honor
and exemplary in all the relations of domestic and public
life, was suddenly dismissed from office, it was pulling away
one of Mr. Pitt's props in the exercise of his most labo-
rious and complicated function as prime minister. Junius,
in his Letter to the King, mentions the dismissal of the
chancellor in terms of displeasure. To render the remark
more pointed, he adds, in a note, " One of the first acts in
the present reign was to dismiss Mr. Legge, because he had, -
some years before, refused to yield his interest in Hampshire
to a Scotchman recommended by Lord Bute."

In the same celebrated letter Junius says, to the King, —
" To the same early influence [viz. Bute's], we attribute it,
that you have descended to take a share, not only in the nar-
row views and interests of particular persons, but in the fatal
malignity of their passions. At your accession to the throne
the ivhole system of government was altered, not from wisdom
or deliberation, but because it had been adopted by your pre-
decessor."

What seemed to fill up the measure of disgust to running
over, was the appointment of Lord Barrington to succeed the
able and virtuous Mr. Legge. And it is remarkable, that Ju-
nius has emptied his vials of wrath upon this nobleman, who,
he declares, has the blackest heart of any man in the kingdom.
His indignation, and his contempt of Barrington, are worth the
reader's notice in this inquiry.

Lord Temple and Mr. Pitt left their advice in writing with
the council, respecting a prompt declaration of war against
Spain ; which being rejected by the king, they resigned then-
places. At this time, it was fashionable at the levee to shud-
der at the horrors of war ; and to commiserate poor Britannia,
bleeding at every pore, to gratify the ambition of one man !
England was represented as fast ruining by her victories ; and
Archbishop Seeker, deceived by this court cant, imbibed great
hopes of directing the young king, like a confessor, through
the influence of his religion, and he accordingly visited

1 56 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

him daily. But the Defender of the Faith stuck close
to his prayer-book without wandering into new superstitions,
so that the second man in the established national church of
England could only join in the then fashionable denunciation
of the sinful practice of war, and pray for the " scattering of
those that delighted in it." *

It is curious that the pious king could relish no war except
that against his own subjects in America, and that he highly
enjoyed upon every gleam of success.

In the new order of things, Henry Fox (Lord Holland),
Lord Chatham's old school-fellow, attached himself to Lord
Bute, through whose influence he attained the important sta-
tion of manager of the House of Commons ; an officer un-
known to the English constitution, and unheard of in these
United States, and, as far as we can learn, an excrescence
not belonging to the healthy body of the state, but a redun-
dant or morbid fungus, generated by corruption, arising from
errors in the first concoction, and affecting all the subsequent
ones. However incredible it may appear to the American
reader, we can assure him, that such a privy purse-holder is
selected by the ministry of the British kings, and that the post
is an object of ardent contention among men of high station.
It is usually given to some Secretary of State. His business
is to distribute among those members of the House who have
no ostensible places, sums of money, over and above con-
tracts, lottery tickets, and other douceurs, with the only con-
dition of — " Give us your vote."

Amidst this flagrant depravity and systematic bribery the
proud City of London remained pure, and free from suspicion.
Habitual mercantile honor pervaded her politics, the offspring
of that wise maxim, " Honesty is the best policy," while
all around her were bartering honor for gold. The Earl of
Chatham, both before and after he attained a seat in the House
of Peers, extended a marked attention to the city of London.

* Psalm 68.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 157

Since the dissolute times of Charles the Second, it had been
fashionable at the west end of the town, and among courtiers,
to laugh at the city authorities, and ridicule the annual parade
and gorgeous exhibition of the riches, privileges, and freedom
of that matchless emporium, which the celebrated Linnccus de-
nominated, with his characteristic, felicity, the " punctum vita,
in vitello orbis." Our great statesman viewed his natal city
in the same point of view ; at which we wonder not ; for
where upon this globe can we find a city capable of such a
demonstration of wealth, liberty, and influence, as London?
This metropolis was a counter-balance to the alarming encroach-
ments of the crown during the first twenty years of the reign of
George the Third. In the year 1770, the Earl of Chatham
said in the House of Lords, — " When I mentioned the Live-
ry of London, I thought I saw a sneer upon some faces ; but
let me tell you, my Lords, though I have the honor to sit in
this House as a Peer of the realm, coinciding with these honest
citizens in opinion, I am proud of the honor of associating my
name with theirs. And let me tell the noblest of you all, it
would be an honor to you. The Livery of London were re-
spectable long before the reformation. The Lord Mayor of
London was a Principal among the twenty-five Barons who
received Magna Charta from King John, and they have ever
since been considered to have a principal weight in all the
affairs of government."

The peerage conferred upon Pitt, with a pension proper to
support that rank, was blazoned abroad, by those very hireling
writers who were paid for abusing him as minister. They
represented him as an apostate, a deserter of the cause of the
people, and his pension a vile bargain for abandoning the pub-
lic interest. Such reiterated accusations at length made an un-
favorable impression on the minds of some who ought to have
spurned the calumny. This induced Lord Chatham to give a
full explanation of the reason of his conduct to the City of
London. Whereupon the authorities of it addressed him as
follows.

158 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

" The City of London, as long as they have any memory,
cannot forget that you accepted the seals when this nation was
in the most deplorable circumstances to which any country can
be reduced ; — our armies were beaten, our navy inactive,
our trade exposed to the enemy, our credit, as if we expected
to become bankrupts, sunk to the lowest pitch, so that there was
nothing to be found but despondency at home, and contempt
abroad.

" The City must also for ever remember, that when you re-
signed the seals, our armies and navies were victorious, our
trade secure and flourishing more than in peace ; our public
credit restored, and people readier to lend than ministers to
borrow ; that there was nothing but exultation at home, confu-
sion and despair among our enemies, amazement and venera-
tion among all neutral nations : — that the French were re-
duced so low as to sue for peace, which we, from humanity,
were willing to grant, though their haughtiness was too great,
and our successes too many, for any terms to be agreed
on. Remembering this, the City cannot but lament that you
have quitted the helm. But if knaves have taught fools to
call your resignation (when you can no longer procure the
same success, being prevented from pursuing the same meas-
ures) a desertion of the public, and to look upon you for ac-
cepting a reward, which can scarce bear that name, in the
light of a pensioner, the City of London hope they shall not be
ranked by you among the one or the other. They are truly
sensible that, though you cease to guide the helm, you have
not deserted the vessel, and that, pensioner as you are, your
inclination to promote the public good is still only to be equal-
led by your ability ; that you sincerely wish success to the
new pilot, and will be ready, not only to warn him and the
crew of rocks and quicksands, but to assist in bringing the ship
through the storm into a safe harbour."

If Lord Chatham was highly honored in his own country,
he was scarcely less so in this. No name upon earth was
more venerated in America than William Pitt, so long as

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 1 59

I can remember.* Whether when " the great Commoner "
was created a Peer he sunk his great name in that of Chatham,
is not for me to say. To us who know nothing of heraldry,
and who dwell in a peerless country, the title of Chatham
seems more appropriate to the famous Dutch admiral De Ruy-
ter f and his family, than to the first statesman and orator of
the British nation. Honors appear strangely conferred and
withheld in England. Who did most service to the realm, and
honor to the nation, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, or
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham^ For the first, the nation
built a superb and very costly palace. To the latter was given
an inferior title, and a pension smaller than that bestowed on
Sir Robert Walpole. However Chatham's great mind may
have succeeded in restraining the expression of his disgust, it
must have been grating to his fiery temper to see the very
best fruits of the conquests achieved under his direction, given
back to France and to Spain, J for money to pamper indi-
viduals. §

If the world have execrated the wretch who, to eternize his
name, burnt a most gorgeous temple of antiquity, what should
Englishmen say of him who should prostrate their temple of
fame and honor ? Who could have felt this so keenly as the
prime architect of it himself, the Earl of Chatham ?

The Earl of Chesterfield, who, without loving Mr. Pitt,
greatly admired him, says to his son, that, "on his becoming
Earl cf Chatham, he had a fall up stairs, and has done himself

* Sixty years ago, the most frequent signs at the inns and taverns in
New England were Mr. Pitt — and the King of Prussia.

f In 1667 Admiral de Ruyter sailed up the river Medway and burnt
Chatham, at that time the principal station of the Royal navy, and
within 30 miles of London, together with several of their first-rate and
other men of war, and returned in triumph to Amsterdam, where is a
superb marble monument erected to his honor.

J As the island of Cuba ; a future Atlantic kingdom in itself.

§ See the examination of Dr. Musgrave before the House of Com-
mons, recorded in a note to the XXII. Chapter of " Ahnon's Anec-
dotes and Speeches of Lord Chatham."

I GO CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

so much hurt that he will never be able to stand upon his legs
again. Every body is puzzled how to account for this step ;
though it would not be the first time that great abilities have
b.een duped by cunning. But be it what it will, he is now only
Earl of Chatham, and no longer Mr. Pitt, in any respect what-
ever. To withdraw, in the fullness of his power and in the
utmost gratification of his ambition, from the House of Com-
mons, which procured him his power, and which could alone
ensure it to him, and to go into that hospital of incurables,
the House of Lords, is a measure so unaccountable, that noth-
ing but proof positive could have made me believe it. There
is one bad sign for Lord Chatham, in his new dignity, which
is, that all his enemies, without exception, rejoice at it ; and
all his friends are stupefied and dumfounded." This is not the
first time, the public has seen that Lord Chesterfield erred
in judgment. He had no scales or standard by which to de-
termine the sterling value of Lord Chatham.

During the years 1766 and 1767, Lord Chatham suffered
grievously from erratic gout, with its usual concomitant, dejec-
tion of spirits. He resorted to Bath, where was Lord Ches-
terfield with the same disorder, who writes to his son, Philip
Stanhope, that " Mr. Pitt keeps his bed here with a very real
gout, and not a political one, as is often suspected." More than
a year after, December 19, 1767, he writes again from the

same place. " Lord Chatham's physician, Dr. , had very

ignorantly checked a coming fit of the gout, and scattered it
about his body, and it fell particularly on his nerves, so that he
continues exceedingly vaporish. He would neither see nor
speak to any body while he was here. This time twelve-
month, he was here in good health and spirits ; but for
these last eight months he has been absolutely invisible to
his most intimate friends ; he would receive no letters, nor
so much as open any packet about business." In another
letter, January 29, 1768, Chesteifield says, "Lord Chat-
ham is at his re-purchased house at Hayes, but sees no
mortal. Some say he has a fit of the gout, which would

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 161

probably do him good ; but many think that his worst com-
plaint is in his head, which I am afraid is too true."

When Lord Chatham resorted for the the last time to Bath,
he was indeed a sick man. His constitution appeared to be
giving way to a depression of spirits and a corresponding weak-
ness of mind. His whole system seemed so concussated,
that his physicians at Bath declared their despair of his life.
"Whenever a very great man in high station happens to be af-
flicted with those symptoms that naturally belong to three-
score years of age, his enemies, at once, attribute them to a
troubled mind operating upon the body, and not, as in nine
instances in ten, to the body operating on the mind. The
concussion of an originally strong constitution, early shattered
by hereditary gout, was exultingly attributed by his Lordship's
foes to chagrin and mortification, at seeing the political world
going on without him, when in fact it was the natural effect
of a cruel chronic disease, making its attack in the narrowest
and most dangerous defile of adult life.

The source or head-quarters of the gout is in the centre of
our bodies, chiefly in the prime organ of digestion, and mani-
fests itself by what the old school of medicine denominated,
happily enough, an error or defect in the first concoction, pro-
ducing derangement in all the other functions, even to that of
intellect. During the alteration in our bodies by the course of
time and the changing events of life, the vires medicatrices
natures exercise their powers from this centre, — this focus,
hearth, or fire-place of our tabernacle ; hence the ebbing
and flowing of the tide of spirits in most gouty subjects ;
hence the fiery rage of the poet and the orator; hence the
deep, atrabilarious gloom of the hypochondriac. Lord Chat-
ham's physicians did not sufficiently consider, that the noble
sufferer had arrived at that ticklish period of man's life, that
critical round in the ladder of our mortal progression, which
many never get over, and few pass without a violent struggle.
This is not an astrological whim, sprouting out of the Pytha-
gorean doctrine of the mystical number seven misunderstood,

162 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

but grounded in nature and confirmed by close observation.
It arrested the attention of Plato, of Cicero, and Aulus Gel-
lius, and several of the Grecian writers on medicine. It is a
change in the male system without destroying man's identity,
and commonly occurs about every seventh year ; sometimes
short of it, sometimes beyond it.

It is between the twenty-ninth and the thirty-sixth year, that
the vigor of the body and the powers of the mind generally
unite to render man capable of the greatest exertion of both.

At the age of forty-two there is generally a visible alteration.
The veins on the back of the hands appear larger and fuller.
Apoplexies very rarely occur before this period, and bleeding
at the nose and from the lungs seldom after it.

In his fiftieth year, a man discovers some waning in his
memory. Still this period is dignified by gravity and thought-
fulness. Between this period and the next, sedentary men
very often experience a loss of appetite, disturbed sleep, and
a diminution of their usual cheerfulness, and have a sallow as-
pect, or an ash-colored visage, accompanied with inactivity,
a lack of resolution, and apprehensions of evil from slight
causes. The sailor, the soldier, and the hard-working me-
chanic now know the luxury of a seat. If there be no chronic
inflammation, no swelling of the legs, shortness of breath, or
signs of organic lesion in any of those viscera destined to carry
on the unconscious operations of the animal economy, the sub-
ject recovers from this serious spell of moulting, which has
given rise to the popular expression, that such a one has
" taken a new lease of his life," seeing he has increased in
flesh and firmness.

Then comes the age of Sixty-Three, long celebrated as the
grand climacteric, being noted by Hippocrates and by Aris-
totle. Suetonius tells us, that he congratulated his nephew on
his passing one of these stages in safety. Looking beyond the-
ories and written authorities, let us try to construe some pas-
sages in the Book of Nature on a subject that comes home to
the bosoms of us all. At this important period of our lives,

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 163

the man heretofore plump appears to shrink ; his eyes are suf-
fused with tears, but from no emotion of the mind ; every visible
part becomes less, lean, and extenuated. It is doubtless the
same with parts and organs concealed from sight. The voice
becomes smaller, the hair loses its color, firmness,, and elas-
ticity, first on the temples, called by the Romans tempora, or
the footmarks of Time. As the shrinkage, dryness, and lean-
ness prevail, wrinkles multiply, and the lower limbs lose their
wonted stability.

We have reason for believing, that similar changes take
place in other animals. We notice those only which we have
domesticated, especially that tribe of birds, which, being with-
out a specific name in our language, are therefore called foiols,
or cocks and hens. These are well known to undergo a change
in three hundred and, sixty days, resembling that to which we
have alluded in the human species. During this crisis, the noble
game-cock loses his courage and fierceness, and the more weak-
ly ones sometimes die in the struggle. No feeding can maintain
the vigor of the first, nor care preserve the latter from drooping.
The female as well as the male bird is disordered and unsociable.
Poulterers give these anonymous birds aromatic articles and
spices to help them by a due stimulus to go speedily through
this renovating process. The woodcock tribe lose so entirely
their peculiar effluvium, that the dogs cannot smell and hunt
them out. These birds appear to cast off their old feathers
with pain and fever ; after which their feathers acquire fresh
brilliancy and beauty, their sociability increases, accompa-
nied with a florid turgescence of their combs and gills, and
the whole flock seem teeming with life, and with a disposition
to perpetuate it.

All these things, being taken into consideration, will lead us
to recognise and admire a law of nature to which all must
submit, from the brightest of the human kind to the humble
animal we destroy for food.

The melancholy condition of the illustrious subject of this
imperfect sketch arose most probably from corporeal causes,

1G4 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

depending on the living fibre and the living fluids, which, when
diseased, operate on the mind and on the body, or both at once,
and this, to a certain extent, is death. What could be expected
from a being long tortured with pain, and manacled by infirmi-
ty, with a mind in consequence of it depressed below its natu-
ral greatness and self-command ?

In the gloomy month of February, 1767, Lord Chatham at-
tempted to return from Bath to London, but was compelled to
stop at Marlborough, where he was confined a month ; and then
came on to Hampstead,* but in a very enfeebled state, where
he resided some time. While there, the King sent almost
every day to inquire after his health, in soothing terms of es-
teem, respect, and consolation.

Very few public men pass through life without a dark cloud
hanging over some part of it. The heretofore strong and clear
mind of the Earl of Chatham now appeared weakened and
perplexed, from physical causes already touched upon. The
mighty statesman, who astonished and awed Europe, and sub-
dued France and Spain, now bent under the weight of years
and disorder. His popularity was diminished by his accep-
tance of the peerage, and his constitutional malady unfitted him
for business. The national affairs appeared to be again in as
gnarled a state as when he was called to the helm by George
the Second, in the year 1757. Lord Chesterfield speaks thus
of them to his son.f " Eight or nine people of some conse-
quence have resigned their employments ; upon which Lord
Chatham made overtures to the Duke of Bedford and his
people, but they could by no means agree, and his Grace went
the next day, full of wrath, to Woburn, J so that negotiation is
entirely at an end. People wait to see whom Lord Chatham will
take in ; for some he must have ; even he cannot be alone
contra mundum. They propagated a report, for a short time
believed, that the Earl of Chatham had joined the Earl of

* A pleasant village in the vicinity of London.

t Letter 372.

X The Duke's country residence.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 105

Bute." At this time our great statesman's temper was evident-
ly soured. He was constitutionally irritable, quick, and im-
petuous. Long habit of dictation in rapid business, great su-
periority in debate and of mind, gave an air of austerity, if not
hauteur, to his manners, and precluded the policy of a con-
venient condescension to the minutiae of politeness, of which he
was a complete master whenever he chose. This inattention
to the small things of the philosopher, and the great things of
Lord Chesterfield, occasionally chafed the feelings of some of
his most valuable friends, and produced a temporary coolness
between him and Lord Temple. The excitability of a poda-
gric is proverbial ; and when vexation and disappointments, im-
paired friendship and resentment, added to the physical causes
already mentioned, preyed upon the nerves of Lord Chatham,
we wonder that he ever recovered ; yet after all, he sur-
mounted the struggle, and came out, like the king of birds,
after moulting, with renewed beauty and increased vigor, and
demonstrated his complete restoration in the House of Lords,
by transcending all his former eloquence on one of the most
important subjects ever agitated in the British Senate. f

f The American question.

CHAPTER VI.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM, CONTINUED.

Previously to Lord Chatham's resorting to Bath, he had a
conference in the royal closet, at the request of the sovereign,
respecting a new ministry. The result was a precipitate for-
mation of one, rendered famous by Mr. Burke's description of
it, as a piece of diversified Mosaic — a mere tessellated pave-
ment without cement ; here a bit of black stone, and there a bit
of white ; patriots and courtiers ; " king's friends " and republi-
cans ; whigs and tories ; treacherous friends and open ene-
mies.

While Lord Chatham was sick at Bath, and his recovery
despaired of, the administration was without a leader. The
right honorable Charles Toivnshend assumed, in some degree,
the reins of government ; and he, in conjunction with General
Conway, meditated some alliances, with a view to establishing
the power of the former. In a word, Mr. Townshend, a gen-
tleman of brilliant talents and lofty views, resolved to seize this
opportunity to fill the place, which it was thought death would

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 167

soon make. He therefore instantly joined the court, with the
most full and explicit declaration of sincerity, and his alliance
was favorably received. But, reader ! mark the end of these
things, and learn another lesson of wisdom ! Charles Town-
shend died after a short illness, and Lord Chatham recovered !

Lord Charlemont, in a letter to Mr. Flood, dated London,
February the 19th, 1767, says, " Lord Chatham is daily ex-
pected, and till he arrives nothing worth informing you of is likely
to happen." In another of April the 9th, 1767, that nobleman
says, — " Lord Chatham is still minister, but how long he may
continue so is a problem that would pose the deepest politician.
The opposition grows more and more violent, and seems to
gain ground ; his ill health as yet prevents his doing any busi-
ness. The ministry is divided into as many parties as there
are men in it; all complain of his want of participation.
Charles Townshend is at open war ; Conway is angry ; Lord
Shelburne out of humor, and the Duke of Grafton by no means
pleased." So much for Burke's tessellated pavement; a meta-
phor borrowed from Lord Chesterfield.

The high blown hopes of Mr. Townshend and his friends
were blasted by his death, while Lord Chatham lay sick at
Hampstead. Had he lived, he would very probably have been
First Lord of the Treasury, and Mr. Yorke * his Chancellor.

We left Lord Chatham very sick at Hampstead. The king
sent almost every day to inquire after his health, desiring him
not to be concerned at his confinement, or absence from pub-
lic business, for that he was resolved to support him.

In consequence of the apprehension of resignations, his Maj-
esty, a few days after the rising of Parliament, wrote a letter ivlth
his own hand to Lord Chatham, then confined to his bed, ac-
quainting him with his resolution to make alterations in his
ministry, and desiring his Lordship's advice and assistance.
To which mark of respect and condescension, Chatham re-
turned a verbal answer " that such was his ill state of health,

* This gentleman destroyed himself. See Junius.

1G8 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

that his Majesty must not expect from him any farther advice
or assistance in any arrangement whatever."

On which the reverend Francis Thackeray remarks, that it
is scarcely to be conceived, that the same ardent and high-
spirited minister, who formerly retired from office because he
was not allowed to guide the measures of the country, should
have sent such an answer to his sovereign, without accompany-
ing it by the resignation of his seal. But this reverend gen-
tleman should, as an historian, have considered the well
known impression on the mind of Lord Chatham respecting
the King's sincerity ; and as a minister of religion he should
have known, from his parochial duties, that the bed of sick-
ness, and, in this case, apparent death, was neither the place
nor the time for compliments, or the multiplication of words.
While a clerical historian holds up, to his listening flock, Death
as the King of Terrors ! he should praise God in their
hearing, that he is also the terror of kings ! with whom there
is no trifling !

The Earl of Chatham, so much superior to other men, was

not exempted from the frailties of us all. He had arrived at

that commonly trying period of man's existence, considered,

from the earliest records of medicine, climacterical, when he

is most liable to stumble down the hill of life, — a hazardous

epoch, when an hereditary or constitutional disorder meets less

resistance from those repelling powers of nature implanted

within us to ward off premature destruction. Lord Chatham

had " originally a healthy, sanguine constitution" But who

can reason down his shattered nerves to quietude ? or argue

coolly and justly with his nervous symptoms ? or, to express

the same idea in better words,

" Who can hold a fire in his hand
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ?
Or wallow naked in December's snow
By thinking on fantastic summer's heat ? " *

* Shakspeare.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 1G9

The Earl of Chatham met that odious visitant to pre-eminent
distinction in its wane of power, " the marble-hearted fiend, In-
gratitude." Lord Charlemont says, in a letter to Mr. Flood in
Ireland, dated in February, 17G7, " There has been, upon va-
rious topics, a great deal of conversation in the House of Com-
mons, but no divisions. One thing, however, appears very ex-
traordinary, if not indecent ; no member of the opposition
speaks without directly abusing Lord Chatham, and no friend
ever rises to take his part. Qui non defendit alio culpante
is scarce a degree less black than absentem qui rodit amiciim.
Is it possible that such a man can be friendless ? "

As to the period of which we have been speaking, political
writers of all parties agree, that there never was a time, in the
reign of any of the Georges, when discontents were more gene-
rally prevalent, or when the people were more wakened to
them. The causes have been explained in a masterly manner
by Mr. Burke.

Lord Chatham's disordered body and distempered mind
needed tranquillity to recruit both. In the podagric, the total
absence of arthritic pains diminishes the vigor of the mind.
What is that in the gouty man which counteracts sluggishness
of intellect, and wages war with stupidity ? It resembles the
hectic of genius in all its high pulsations of poetry and elo-
quence. It would seem that the great minister was all placidi-
ty with his domestic connexions, and towards his sovereign all
deference and respect, whatever he was toward those with
whom he had official business. He sought repose in the
bosom of his beloved family in his re-purchased family resi-
dence at Hayes ; and this calm retreat in a favorite spot had
the happiest effects in restoring his mind, at least, to its
pristine vigor. But can any one believe, that the capacious
and elastic mind of Lord Chatham was as acquiescent as his
body during this retirement; that he would allow "the sen-
sible, warm emotion to become there a kneaded clod ? "
The idea is incredible ! Within three months from this time,

170 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

he returned the privy-seal to the king by the hand of his
friend, Lord Camden.

Behold then JUNIUS Brutus in retirement, brooding over
the disgraces of his country and his own personal wrongs,
meditating her deliverance, and fostering his own feelings of
revenge, — always strong, but now rendered acrimonious by
age and disease. It was at this awful period of public discon-
tent and keen personal feelings, that Junius burst upon the
British public with the suddenness and violence of an Ameri-
can thundergust ! *

As Lord Chatham had not the meekness of Moses, nor the
coolness of Washington, we may imagine what were the feel-
ings of the offended minister. A man strong-willed, self-suf-
ficient, and powerfully gifted, naturally imperious, and morbidly
impatient, in the decline of life, racked with incurable gout, and
living a life of decrepitude and self-denial, without one cheering
prospect in his political horizon, must close his lips in everlasting
silence, or if he speak at all, must " speak daggers." Under
these circumstances, reflect a moment on his incessant labors,
great occasional exertions, and eminent hazards ; the plans of
conquest he formed, and the victories achieved in consequence
of them ; the best fruits of which were given back to France and
to Spain for money — yes, for money to pamper the pride and
passions of the King's and Lord Bute's friends, for the nation
had none of it.f Consider also the native king, with good in-
tentions, hurried on to error by an intriguing German mother,
inculcating obstinacy under the guise of firmness, while a sor-
did Scotchman was littering his head with trifles, and stimu-
lating him to exert all his constitutional powers, and some-
what more, to crush a private individual, the abetted champion
of the people's rights. J

* January 29, 17G9.

f See the examination of Dr. Musgrave before the House of Com-
mons.

\ John Wilkes.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 171

Perhaps no man could have felt all these mortifying circum-
stances so keenly as he who had directed the successful war
against the House of Bourbon, conquering the French islands
in the West Indies, and all their possessions in the East, and
dispossessing them entirely of the vast region under the name
of Canada. The honor and glory of old England lay so near
Lord Chatham's heart, that they constituted his ruling passion.
Next to that in his affections were these North American colo-
nies. Take likewise into view the dark and rolling clouds
rapidly approaching from this country, after George Gren-
ville became minister, threatening a dreadful storm ; and we
shall be convinced, that such a temperament as Chatham's
could not possibly sink, at once, into a state of apathy to the
manifold dangers and disgraces of the nation. This would be
to suppose with the sordid vulgar, that Pitt's patriotic spirit
evaporated when be became a peer.

The condition of this retired statesman was, in a degree, de-
plorable. Disease forbade him the benefit of travelling, pro-
hibited hunting, and the easier gesture of ordinary horse-back
exercise ; and, what marks his bodily decrepitude still stronger,
he was unable to perform on any musical instrument, so cru-
elly had the gout fed on his extremities. How could such an
active mind of ethereal fire fill up the hours ? What, think ye,
were the horcc politico, of such an experienced personage ?
Thought, keen thought, and alternately painful and gratifying
reminiscences j for none could suppose, that the virtuous Earl
of Chatham could, like too many disgusted men, " steep his
senses in forgetfulness."

If we consider human nature in its brightest point of view, —
genius disciplined by careful education, as that of Lord Chat-
ham's, we cannot suppose that, after he withdrew from the tur-
moils of a complicated office encumbered with deep responsi-
bility, he could have sunk, all at once, to indolence. He had
raised his country, in the short space of three years, from de-
pression and disgrace to exaltation and glory, and that by force
of his superior genius and spotless moral character. His plans

172 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

were the wisest, his instrurhenls the best, and his success the
completest of any prime minister's on the annals of fame. Can
it be believed, that a statesman thus endowed, and with trans-
cendent eloquence, should have left behind him no other pro-
ductions of his pen than a few very tame, if not lean, letters to
his son and his nephew, compositions which many a mother in
old England and New could have equalled ? To such a mir-
ror of eloquence " vita sine Uteris mors est." It is no way
probable, that the ardent mind became suddenly cold, that the
strong and burning wave of political zeal stopped at once.
These sudden stagnations occur, only from an instantaneous
stroke, impairing at once the mainspring of the intellectual or-
gan ; whereas Chatham, it is well known, blazed forth in Par-
liament, two or three years after, stronger and brighter than
ever. Nay, in 1770, he denounced the conduct of the cabi-
net in such a bitter and overwhelming torrent of eloquence, as
induced several in the ministry to resign their offices, and
sadly distressed the monarch himself. It was when the king
passionately dismissed the Lord Chancellor Camden, the in-
timate friend of Lord Chatham. This was a period of confu-
sion and distress at court, from occurrences which rendered the
primary object of it a subject of commiseration and tears. It
was when difficulties, perplexities, and embarrassments led the
monarch to send for the Hon. Mr. Yorke, to whom were
offered the great seals. By long and very earnest entreaties,
which at length overpowered his reluctance, he was compelled
in a manner to accept them. The infliction of this high honor
compelled the unhappy man, soon after, to put an end to his
mortal existence.* — Who can wonder, that " uneasy is the
head that wears a crown ? "

Few people in this country are aware of the deep impres-
sion made upon the minds of people of the first rank by the

* Junius, alluding to the violent death of Mr. Yorke, says, " The
most secret particulars of this detestable transaction shall, in due time,
be given to the public. The people shall know what kind of man they
have to deal with." Is that due time not yet arrived ?

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 17,3

Letters in question. Hear what the eminent English moralist,
the very able, rough, and scragged Samuel Johnson says of
the author of them. " Junius burst into notice with a blaze
of impudence which has rarely glared upon the world before',
and drew the rabble after him, as a monster makes a show."
This is unjust, untrue, and abusive. It was not the rabble,
but the deep-thinking aristocracy, both whigs and tories, who
were moved the most by the voice of Junius. Dr. Johnson
adds, — " He is an unusual phenomenon, on which some have
gazed with wonder and some with terror, but wonder and ter-
ror are transitory passions. He soon will be more closely
viewed, or more attentively examined ; and what folly has
taken for a comet, that, ' from its flaming hair, shook pestilence
and war,' inquiry will find to be only a meteor, formed by the
vapors of putrefying democracy, and kindled into flame by
the effervescence of interest struggling with conviction, which,
after having plunged its followers in a bog, will leave us in-
quiring why we regarded it." What labor, — what painful
straining to evacuate a hard, mephitic paragraph ! Compare
it with the ease, elegance, dignity, and precision of most of the
pages of the writer he reviles. The Rambler, in pursuing his
figure, lost his chemistry, and forgot that effervescence and pu-
trefaction are steps to regeneration. The literary giant adds, —
" Junius has sometimes made his satire felt ; but let not in-
judicious admiration mistake the venom of the shaft for the
vigor of the bow. He has sometimes sported with lucky
malice ; but to him who knows his company, it is not hard
to be sarcastic in a mask. While he walks, like Jack the
giant-killer, in a coat of darkness, he may do much mischief
with little strength." All this appears like a day-laboring
man working for wages. The same renowned critic proceeds
thus, — " Finding sedition ascendant, he has been able to ad-
vance it ; finding the nation combustible, he has been able to
in (lame it. Let us abstract from his wit the vivacity of inso-
lence, and withdraw from his efficacy the sympathetic favor of
plebeian malignity ; — I do not say that we shall leave him noth-

174 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ing ; the cause that I defend scorns the help of falsehood ; but
if we leave him only his merit, what will be his praise ? "
That is in substance to say,— Kill the lion, and give his flesh
to the dogs, — break all his bones, and pick out their marrow,
and what will you leave of the monarch of the woods but his
matchless skin ?

Mr. Burke, who never sold his brilliant talents, and who,
Johnson thought, was the only man capable of writing the Let-
ters in question, took a different and more honorable view of
Junius. He speaks with astonishment of his hardihood, and
admiration of his talents, knowledge, and integrity. That Ju-
nius, in a visor and complete armor of polished steel, was a
terrific object, appears from other evidence than that of Burke,
and the affected contempt of Johnson. Kings, Lords, and Com-
mons, the army, the literary aristocracy of Britain, the au-
tocracy of the people, — all, all felt the power of a free press,
when wielded by the hand of this very able and fearless cham-
pion of liberty. Instead of the transitory effect of the princi-
ples of Junius, predicted by Dr. Johnson, they are still felt.
Their deep impression yet remains in Great Britain. Nor is
this all. The same spirit even now walks these shores of the
Atlantic, " magni nominis umbra." Nay, more. France is
wide awake, where

" Millions of souls
Shall feel its power,
And bear it down
To millions more."

CHAPTER VII.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM, CONTINUED.

Great Britain, at peace with all the world, her own sub-
jects excepted, was, between the years 1767 and 1770, sadly
perturbed by Wilkes and Liberty. Behind the stalking-horse
of the Middlesex election marched the formidable corps of
ousted and resentful whigs. To this respectable English force
was opposed a Scotch one, commanded by the Earl of Bute,
assisted by Lord Mansfield. This army of raw troops was
rendered in a degree formidable, by having, as in the civil
war with Charles the First, a royal generalissimo at its head.
What it lacked in experience, discipline, and steady Roman
valor, was made up by the magical circumstance of royal in-
fluence. In the first army John Wilkes was a daring and
very successful partisan officer ; while in the latter, Mansfield
was at the head of the sappers and miners.

The first Parliament, in the reign of George the Third, was
dissolved in March, 17G8. Of this Parliament it is observed
by a sensible and candid historian,* that it exhibited no dis-
tinguishing marks of legislative wisdom ; that its chief objects
were individual prosecution and colonial regulations ; in which
its members proceeded with the passion of partisans, and not
the cool policy of senators ; and towards these colonies with a
succession of contradictory measures. " They irritated," says
the historian, " conciliated, and irritated again, and left the

* Dr. Bisset's History of George Hi.

176 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

colonies ill affected towards this country, sowing the seeds of
the American war." The Commons, raised, according to
their own writers, from a hot-bed of corruption, seemed busily
employed in sawing off the limb of the tree which bore them,
or, in plainer terms, voting away their own privileges to gratify
the ministry.

Lord Chatham, deeply imbued with constitutional principles
and the purest patriotic spirit, advocated the cause of John
Wilkes ; he viewed him merely as an Englishman possessing
certain rights, without any regard to his merits or demerits as
a man. In this point of view only, the question was contem-
plated by Lord Chatham, and precisely so considered by Ju-
nius ; while the new-fangled Parliament talked nonsense about
reformation, when their only rule of conduct was to act in di-
rect opposition to the harmonious one which terminated with
the power of Pitt. While the popular party adored Wilkes,
worshipping they knew not what, the partisans of the court
spoke of him as the vilest incendiary. " For my own part,"
says Lord Chatham, " I am neither moved by his private vices,
nor by his public merits. In his person, though he were the
worst of men, I contend for the safety and security of the best."
It is presumed that the reader bears in mind, that the resent-
ment of the people arose from the House of Commons expel-
ling Mr. Wilkes after his repeated election by the county of
Middlesex, which deprived its electors of the free choice of a
representative. On this occasion Lord Chatham said in the
House of Peers, " I have considered the matter with most se-
rious attention ; and as I have not in my own breast the small-
est doubt, that the present universal discontent of the nation
arises from the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, I think that we ought,
in our address [then under debate], to state the matter to the
king." But his motion for it was negatived.

On the 22d of January, 1770, the Marquis of Rockingham
moved for fixing a day to take into consideration the state of
the nation.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 177

The object of his speech was to show, " that the present un-
happy condition of affairs and the universal discontent of the
people did not arise from any immediate temporary cause, but
had grown up by degrees, from the moment of his majesty's ac-
cession to the throne ; that the person, in whom his majesty
then confided, had introduced a total change in the old system
of English government ; that they had adopted a maxim which
must prove fatal to the liberties of the country, viz. ' that the
royal prerogative alone was sufficient to support government,
to whatever hands the administration should be committed ' ;
and he could trace the operation of this principle through every
act of government since the accession, in which those persons
could be supposed to have any influence. Their first exertion
of the prerogative was to make a peace contrary to the wishes
of the nation, and on terms totally disproportioned to the suc-
cess of the war ; but as they felt themselves unequal to the
conduct of a war, they thought a peace, on any conditions,
necessary for their own security and permanence in adminis-
tration. The Marquis then took notice of those odious, tyran-
nical acts of power, by which an approbation of the peace had
been obtained. And he mentioned the general siveep from
office through every branch and department of administration ;
the removes not merely confined to the higher employments,
but carried down, with the minutest cruelty, to the lowest of-
fices of the state ; and numberless innocent families, which had
subsisted on salaries from fifty to two hundred pounds a year,
turned out to misery and ruin, with as little regard to the rules
of justice as to the common feelings of compassion." *

*Here we may remark, that the cruel and unjust system of removals,
down to the lowest offices, which has heen pursued here within
the last two years (182'J and 1830), and has created general disgust
throughout the United States, has not even the merit of originality, but
is copied from the system introduced by the Earl of Bute, and pursued
by George the Third to his own destruction. That wretched policy
called forth the North Briton, and that audacious publication, Junius,
which led to measures that divided the empire ; otherwise America

178 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

The Duke of Grafton spoke next ; and after him the Earl
of Chatham said, " My Lords, I need not look abroad for
grievances. The grand, capital mischief is fixed at home. It
corrupts the very foundation of our political existence, and
preys upon the vitals of the state. The constitution has
been grossly violated. The constitution at this moment
stands violated. Until that wound be healed, until the
grievance be redressed, it is in vain to promote concord among
the people. If we mean seriously to unite the nation within
itself, we must convince them, that their complaints are re-
garded, and that their injuries shall be redressed. On that
foundation, I would take the lead in recommending peace and
harmony to the people. On any other, I would never wish to
see them united again. If the breach in the constitution be
effectually repaired, the people will of themselves return to a
state of tranquillity. If not, — may discord prevail for ever.
I know to what point this doctrine and this language will
appear directed. But I feel the principles of an Englishman,
and I utter them without apprehension or reserve. The crisis
is indeed alarming ; so much the more does it require a pru-
dent relaxation on the part of government. If the king's ser-
vants will not permit a constitutional question to be decided
on, according to the forms and on the principles of the consti-
tution, it must then be decided in some other manner ; and
rather than it should be given up, rather than the nation should
surrender their birth-right to a despotic minister, I hope, my
Lords, old as I am, I shall see the question brought to issue
and fairly tried between the people and the government. My
Lords, this is not the language of faction ; let it be tried by
that criterion by which alone we can distinguish what is fac-
tious from what is not, — by the principles of the English con-
stitution. I have been bred up in these principles ; and I

might have been a century longer dependant on the realm of Great
Britain, and its sovereign might have lived out his days with mens
sana in corpore sano.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. ] 79

know, that when the liberty of the subject is invaded, and all
redress denied him, resistance is justified." *

This is direct, plain, forcible, and decisive language, the
very characteristic of Junius, with all his fearless spirit; and
I will add, of no other writer or orator whatever, contempo-
rary, anterior, or subsequent.

Lord Chatham retired, in 1768, to his favorite spot at
Hayes, fifteen miles from London, where he saw no visitors,
nor answered any letters. But when the aspect of affairs
became alarming, threatening personal as well as general lib-
erty, he left his couch of infirmity, and, repairing to Parlia-
ment, broke upon the delinquents with the energy and fire
of a divinely inspired prophet, and in language as fearless.
Where is there an English prose-writer who comes up to
Chatham in force, fire, noble daring, and dignity of expression,
exemplified in his speeches in the House of Lords, — Junius
alone excepted'? Edmund Burke, abounding in lessons of
civil and moral wisdom, charming with flowers and metaphors,
rich in illustration, captivating in his transitions, and splendid
in every thing, never dashes upon the soul with the ir-
resistible wave of Chatham's invective ; — nor does any writer, —
unless we except the overwhelming rage of Junius, which
struck breathless King, Lords, and Commons. If Burke was
the sublime and beautiful, Chatham was the sublime and ter-
rible, and so was Junius.

Lord Chatham had a singular energy of style, and his minis-
ters abroad at foreign courts were puzzled to clothe his ideas
in any other language than his own. The Hon. Hans Stan-
ley, who was sent to Paris in 17G1 to treat of the prelimina-
ries of peace, writes to Mr. Pitt thus, — " Though you are ex-
tremely skilled in the French language, I believe you would
find it difficult precisely to translate your own memorial ; and
that you would often be obliged to exercise your judgment
in the choice of phrases, — as every word carries a distinct
idea, which can in no other way be with equal force ex-

* Almon's Speeches of Chatham.

180 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

pressed." Is not this exactly the case with the best Letters
of Junius ? It corresponds with the remarks we have already
made on his peculiar style.*

In early life Pitt's ambition panted for the tented field ;
but disease pressed him into a different service ; otherwise
he might have taken the right of Hannibal, Caesar, and Na-
poleon, in the laurelled rank of great commanders. An over-
ruling agency, that which gives the secret bias to the soul, in-
stead of granting him the flying war-horse, nailed him down to
his bureau ; whence, though crippled, he influenced powerfully
the minds of men, prescribed to departments, directed fleets and
armies, guided senates, instructed monarchs, controlled na-
tions, — Prussia by his friendship, and France by his hostili-
ty, — and caused Europe and America to acknowledge the
force of his mind. Could such a mind, after these political
and martial victories, sink down into torpidity in a country vil-
lage, or retreat at once into a cave, there " to lie in cold ob-
struction and to rot ? " It is incredible. That his soul of fire
was not damped, the House of Peers could testify. Is it
likely that such an ambitious mind would leave his fame
floating on the evanescent breath of contemporary auditors,
without one effort towards perpetuating his great name through
ages, and without bequeathing to English posterity the prin-
ciples he maintained, and his remedies against those disor-
ders which shook the constitution of England in his own times ?
No ! devoted to his own country, and, next to her, affectionate
to this, he wrote our creed with a pen of steel upon leaves
of brass.

I cannot rid myself of the long existing impression, that,
when King, Councils, Ministers, Parliaments, and Livery-men
refused to listen to the advice of Lord Chatham, he poured
it into the ears of an anxious public through the medium of the
press, and gave it, I had almost said, a supernatural force, by the
mystery of concealment, well knowing the oracular effect of
speaking from a recess which no curiosity could penetrate.

* See page 106.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 181

That some great political writer was about to appear, who
should shake all that could be shaken, was surmised, if not
predicted, in Brown's Essay, entitled " An Estimate of the
Manners and Principles of the Times." This able writer de-
scribed the unprosperous condition of his native country with a
sigh, and predicted its ruin unless there should be a speedy
amendment. The grand remedy, which he held up to the pub-
lic, was to operate through the votes of a people uncontaminated
by corruption, which had been dealt out by Sir Robert Wal-
pole, not, as he contended, to bribe members of Parliament to
vote against, but according to their conscience. Beside the re-
demption of the people from that system of bribery, Dr. Brown
speaks of the redeeming powers of a Great Minister. After
depicting his own idea of such a blessing, in the drawing of
which he doubtless had in his eye the Earl of Chatham, he
adds, — " There is another character belonging to a lower walk
of life, which might be no less strange than that which is here
delineated, — I mean the character of a Political Writer.
He would choose an untrodden path of politics, where no party-
man ever dared to enter. The undisguised freedom and bold-
ness of his manner would please the brave, astonish the weak,
and confound the guilty. He would be called arrogant by
those who call every thing arrogance that is not servility. If
he writ in a period when his country was declining, while he
pointed out the means from whence alone honest hope could
arise, he would be charged, by scribbling sycophants, with
plunging a nation in despair. As he would be defamed by the
dissolute great without cause, so he would be applauded by
an holiest people beyond his deservings."

Have we not here a glimpse of Junius ? I would not in-
sinuate, that the eminent ecclesiastic, whom we have cited, was
supernaturally endowed with the spirit of prophecy ; I mean
only to say, that, from his knowledge of men and things, from
the throne to the cottage, from the royal fleets to the water-
men on the Thames, he saw, in prospective, that concatenation
of causes and effects which must lead to results the world has
witnessed.

182 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

His ideal minister does honor to his judgment, and his ideal
writer to his sagacity. Near the close of Dr. Brown's inter-
esting book, he remarks, that his ideal minister has been
found ; and we say, that his ideal great political writer has
also been found ; and we shall try to show that they were
united in the same illustrious individual.

The Letters of Junius and the speeches of Lord Chatham
form an epoch in the history of English literature and oratory.
Dr. Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, who died about a dozen
years before the Rev. Dr. Brown wrote his Essay on the
Manners and Principles of his own times, was a party-writer,
and obtained his consequence and his church promotion, if not
his fame, from that species of writing. He was celebrated for a
strong, able, severe, and satirical pen, with little delicacy.
Some dwell with apparent horror on what they call the malig-
nity of Junius, who is sparing of harsh epithets, compared
with the harsh, indecent, and too often profane language of this
church dignitary. Passing over the Dean's tory principles, we
cannot but remark his severe denunciations of the Dissenters
as people unworthy the blessings of liberty. Beside, his mang-
ling satire marks him out as a literary savage ; so much so,
that, although he wrote in favor of the court and of the church,
his sovereign was ashamed to make him a bishop. Still Swift
was caressed, praised, flattered, and feared, from the throne
clown through the peerage and all the high offices of state.
Compare the severest satires of this son of the church, with
those of Junius, on the score of decorum, and be silent on the
topic of invectives.

Making due allowance for the restraining rules of both
Houses of Parliament, we shall find that Lord Chatham was
not far behind Junius in bitter sarcasms and envenomed wit.
The style and spirit of their invectives, and the subjects and ob-
jects, are very similar. The Earl of Chatham was but a young
member of Parliament when he castigated Mr. Walpole, then
an old man, in so resentful a style as to kindle the ire of some
of the most respectable gentlemen of the House of Commons.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 183

Nor did he always spare his old schoolfellow and friend, Hen-
ry Fox, Lord Holland. We adduce these instances to meet
the objection of some who contend, that Junius is too bitter,
too extremely severe, to allow us to believe, that the polite
Lord Chatham could be the writer of the Letters in question.
Moreover does the language of the man in a mask exceed in
harshness that used between the Parliament and the royalists in
the time of Charles the First. Junius, be sure, has sharper
points, because he had more wit than the Covenanters ; and if
he cut deeper than Swift, it was because his weapon was higher
polished and better tempered. Furthermore, does the severest
language of Junius surpass, or equal, that of the two cele-
brated Fathers of the Protestant Church, Martin Luther and
John Calvin ? It is the superior wit and the refined talent of
the Englishman, which convey the idea of greater severity
than that used by the German or the French reformer. Nay,
farther still, — when holy men of old received a divine com-
mand to operate a certain end, the phraseology was their own.
Hence the gloomy anger of one Prophet, and the horrid denun-
ciations of another. What reason have we for saying, that
Ezekiel had more malignity of heart than Isaiah ? Lord Chat-
ham was distinguished, above every speaker in Parliament,
for severity of remark, or what Hume Campbell, unluckily,
called " eternal invectives." Yet was this nobleman of a very
friendly, kind, and affectionate temper in his family, and great-
ly beloved by all about him ; and common observation informs
us, that he who is most remarkable for copia verborum is the
most apt, when excited, to use the sharpest diction.

Some have said, that the accomplished Earl of Chatham,
venerable for a rare assemblage of extraordinary virtues and
talents, a nobleman in whom the world beheld honor personi-
fied, would be restrained by the offspring of them all, — grati-
tude for his hereditary coronet, and four thousand a year.
This argument is more specious than solid. They who shud-
der at the chafed feelings of George the Third, from truths ut-
tered by Junius (for falsehoods cannot disturb a wise and good

184 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

man), should recollect the personal anguish of Charles the
First, Louis the Sixteenth, and the Emperor Napoleon.*

As to Lord Chatham's gratitude towards his Sovereign, —
in which scale was the heaviest weight of obligation ? We re-
iterate the question ; What were the national services of the
Duke of Marlborough, compared with those of Chatham, who
did more injury to the enemies of Great Britain in four years,
than Marlborough did in ten ? After all, what is political
gratitude ? Let us learn wisdom from the example of history ;
and turn to Plutarch, a great master in that school of phi-
losophy.

From him we learn, that Marcus Brutus was mild in his
temper, with a greatness of mind that was superior to anger,
avarice, and the love of pleasure ; f firm and inflexible in his
opinions, and zealous in every pursuit where justice and honor
were concerned ; and that the people had the highest opinion
of his integrity and sincerity. History scarcely affords us a
stronger instance of kindness, partiality, and affection among
great men, than that which subsisted between Julius Ccesar and
Marcus Brutus. Indeed, the great intimacy between Caesar
and Servilia, the daughter of Cato and mother of Brutus,
when the latter was born, led many to believe, that he might
be Caesar's son. When Cassius and Brutus were candidates
for a very distinguished praetorship, Caesar said, — Cassius has
the strongest reason in his favor, but Brutus must have it.

We learn farther, from the same writer, that it was generally
believed that Brutus would be nominated to succeed him ; for
that, when Caesar was advised to beware of him, he laid his
hand on his breast and said, — Do not you think thai Brutus
will wait till 1 have done with this poor body ? And yet ! the
beloved Brutus, ornamented with every acquirement that phi-

* " I tell you with positive certainty, that our gracious [Sovereign]
is as callous as a stockfish to every thing hut the reproach of cowardice.
That alone is able to set the humors afloat. After a paper of that kind
he won't eat meat for a week." — Junius to Woodfall.

t See Langhom's Translat'on.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. \Q$

losophy, rank, and reputation could give, and rich in the affec-
tion and confidence of Caesar, murdered him ! — his benefac-
tor and friend, and, as many thought, his father.

If we have, by this historical fact, removed the stumbling-
block thrown in our way, respecting the ingratitude of Chat-
ham, Plutarch supplied both the fulcrum and the lever. He
tells us, moreover, that the condition of Rome was such,
that it evidently required a master ; that Caesar was no more
than a tender and skilful physician, appointed by Providence
to heal the distempers of the state. Yet Brutus, who must
have known all this, murdered him ! — What then is personal
gratitude in the heroic heart of patriotism ?

Beside, we do not, we cannot believe, that Lord Chatham
ever felt bound in gratitude and affection towards the young
successor of George the Second. He tells us, in plain terms,
that he deceived him, betrayed him, and, what is never for-
given, duped him.* When the King wrote to Lord Chatham,
while sick at Hampstead, soliciting the great statesman's ad-
vice and assistance, the proud invalid, by returning no other
than a verbal answer, might have felt like Diogenes, when he
requested Alexander to stand out of the sunshine, — that is, Do
not deprive my fleeting soul of the sunshine of its own reflec-
tions ; do not deprive me of that comfort which you cannot
give. That Chatham's honors " had been dearly earned,"
no one will deny. Look at the history of his labors, and the
fruits of them ; and see who gathered these.

By what strong cords of gratitude was Brutus bound to
Caesar ! What was that spirit which instigated him to destroy
the life of his best friend and benefactor ? We answer, Pa-
triotism. What impelled Junius Brutus first to scourge, and
then to put to death, his own son ? Patriotism. And what
moved Chatham, — if William Pitt and Junius be one and the
same person, — to destroy, not the life, but the character and
influence of Grafton, Bute, Bedford, and Mansfield 9 We

* Speech in the House of Peers, March, 1770. See also Wilkes's
Letter to Junius, Sept. 12, 1771, in Woodtall's Junius.

186 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

answer, Patriotism. And what animated him, not to murder
the British Caesar, but to rouse him, alarm him, caution and
advise him to return from the error of his ways, and live glo-
riously in the hearts of his people, and in history. His lan-
guage to his Sovereign was firm, but honest ; severe, yet
studiously respectful. He indeed spoke daggers, but used
none as Brutus did. Had Chatham, under the shadow of
a great name, been detected for his conduct towards his
King and benefactor, he might well reply, in the words of
Shakspeare's Brutus, — " If there be any dear friend of Caesar's,
and that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar ; — this
is my answer, — Not that I loved Ccesar less, but that 1 loved
England more."

One word more on the subject of gratitude, because it has
been the bass-string which has been long harped upon in England
and in America. The King of Britain is the high steward of
the wealth and honors of the realm ; and it is his duty to be-
stow them according to merit. Public servants are public
creditors ; and the King is the constituted paymaster. Sir
Jeffery Amherst, a brave and meritorious general, who com-
pletely executed in this country, what Lord Chatham planned
in England, a great favorite of Mr. Pitt and of Junius, was
rewarded by a peerage and pension ; so likewise was Sir Guy
Carlton, Admiral Nelson, and Lord George Germain. Had
the King raised Pitt to a Dukedom, and the nation built him a
palace equal to that at Woodstock, would it have been too
much ? We in these regions may view things through a
cloud of ignorance ; but the inequality of rewards appears
strange to us. One general sits hours quietly and silently
on horse-back, while the troops of several nations entrap
" the Lion of the forest" and the fortunate commander ob-
tains for it the highest honors Great Britain can bestow ; —
honors far greater than those bestowed on a renowned States-
man, who held in his hand the balance of Europe, and the peace
of the world ; — the man who, by his capacious mind, stern
virtue, disinterestedness, unwearied industry, and patriotism

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 187

that never faltered, acquired more influence and control, than
Cardinal Wolsey with all his riches, host of servile depend-
ents, boundless royal favor, and every aid the superstition of
the day could afford. And yet Chatham was comparatively
poor ; and, but for individual private bounty, would have been
really so.

If you compare the state of affairs in the latter part of the
reign of the Second George with the condition of things in the
early part of the reign of his grandson, you will admit that the
difference was enough to engender disgust in the breast of the
prime agent of the nation's former glory. The retrospect and
the prospect must have made an equally sad impression. He
must have known thoroughly the character of the young mon-
arch in all its unyielding self-sufficiency, from his pupilage to his
accession in 1761, and through the intervening space to 1769.

Conceive, then, a veteran Statesman, a very well-studied
philologist and consummate orator, determined to save his
country from farther degradation and disgrace. What mode
would such a character naturally adopt ? Not that of a formal
audience with a mother-ruled King, when he would have been
treated with every external token of profound respect and
sign of deference, but with a fixed resolution not to follow his
advice, or pay any regard to his warnings. Would he con-
tinue his solemn and pathetic expostulations in the House
of Peers ? He knew, alas ! that House loo well. Would
he address the people through the medium of the press,
adding to it the weight of his own great name ? Assuredly
not ; for, ever since George the Third came to the throne, a
variety of means had been used to depreciate Lord Chatham's
wisdom, lessen his worth, detract from his merit, defame his
high character, and misrepresent his motives and ultimate
views.* It appears from the daily publications of those times,
that every contrivance which malice, jealousy, fear, revenge,

* When Dr. Johnson submitted certain partisan essays to Lord
North, there was this sentence, which his Lordship erased from the
manuscript, — " Perhaps the Americans would like a King William."

188 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

and female spite could devise, or bribery effectuate, was
called into requisition to destroy the influence of the great
Statesman. Rumor, swelled by spies prowling around his hab-
itation, represented the great man with unstrung nerves, and
every faculty prostrated by paroxysms resembling hysterics, in
which he would weep like a child. This was spread so far and
wide, that his famous contemporary and great admirer, the re-
nowned Frederic, King of Prussia, has mentioned it in some
of his letters. All this is possible ; for Lord Chatham's he-
reditary disease, joined to a supervening disorder, and his
critical period of life, shook his susceptible nervous system,
as the fever shook that of Julius Ccesar in Spain j

" When that same eye, whose hend did awe the world,

Did lose his lustre.

Ay, and that tongue of his, that hade the Romans
Mark him and write his speeches in their books,
Alas ! it cried, Give me some drink, —
As a sick girl."

But his health improving, he, to the surprise of many, and
the sore disappointment of some, regained his former vigor of
mind, and once more electrified the Senate. When that
failed to have the desired effect, how would such a character,
in such circumstances, probably conduct ? 1 answer, in the
very mode which Junius adopted, — A fearful hand-writing
on the wall of the palace, rendered doubly impressive by its
halo of mystery !

We of Anglo-Saxon descent are more or less superstitious.
Generally speaking, superstition agitates less powerfully minds
moderately gifted, and of ordinary information. It operates, I
had almost said incubates, upon the extremes of the human intel-
lect ; — I mean poetical genius and ignorance. One hair's
breadth beyond the circumference of the circle of each man's
knowledge leaves him on the vertiginous border of the dark
ocean of superstition, where the giddy and bewildered imagi-
nation floats in a boundless sea of uncertainty, without sun, star,
compass, or anchor, or any means of determining his latitude or

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 189

longitude. Such is restless superstition ! In a cloud ambiguous,
in a vapor from such a troubled ocean, was enveloped Juni-
us, who, like the ghost of the King of Denmark, acids terror
to his sepulchral voice.

Now I question if human judgment could have devised a
more effectual method of rousing a deluded monarch, influ-
encing and influenced by a secret, irresponsible cabinet, and
losing rapidly the confidence of his people, than that startling
exhibition of flaming Letters, reflected on the interior walls of
his palace, by an Unknown being.

A steady and uniform opinion, long since imbibed, has rivet-
ted in my mind the belief, that those solemn warnings were
written by the hand of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham.
Nor have I once, during fifty years, been able to dissociate the
idea. I contend, that the hypothesis suits that nobleman, and
fits no other personage whatever ; and the more I have pon-
dered, inquired, compared and balanced one thing against
another, the deeper has been the impression, that it was the
powerful voice of that great but angry Statesman, which sound-
ed in the ears of the King and resounded through the nation, —
" Thou hast been weighed in the balance — and found
wanting ! Thy Kingdom is departing from thee ! "

A prophecy, long since, more than half fulfilled ! *

It seems that Mr. Pitt, disappointed in his ruling passion,
arms, by the gout, acted like a wise but ill-favored virgin, who,
conscious that she could not attract attention by her personal
charms, resolves to make up the defect by sedulous cultiva-
tion of mind and behaviour. So Pitt, when forced to relin-
quish the fascinating pomp of war, redoubled his diligence in
disciplining one of those quick, strong, and brilliant intellects,
to whose captivating powers we give the name of genius. A

* " Their declaration gave spirit and argument to the colonies ; and
while, perhaps, they meant no more than the ruin of a minister, they
in effect divided the one half of the empire from the other." — Junius,
Letter the First.

190 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

young man of Mr. Pitt's lofty spirit and military cast of dispo-
sition, who could read regularly Bailey's Dictionary, more co-
pious in words than Johnson's, twice over, and who could dig
in Barrow's quarry for materials for his monument, must have
had a brain equal to any task his judgment chose to lay upon
it. With the same view he studied not only Shakspeare but
Spenser. Favored with a muse of fire, such an ardent stu-
dent must have considered every word he used with the same
attention that the mathematician does a figure. He was adroit
in the use of the file and the burnisher without weakening the
metal. To be convinced of this, compare his first speeches in
Parliament in the year 1736, with some later ones ; make the
same comparison with the Letters of Junius, and there will
be found in each a progressive improvement ; so true is that
voice of antiquity which said, — The gods sell every thing to
Industry.

Mr. Pitt, when young, associated with distinguished men older
than himself, whence he imbibed that freedom of speech, easy,
unembarrassed manner, and imposing assurance, which made
its way through every thing, till it became a habit ; and what
with the irritations of gout, and pressure of various business,
it may have required the vigilance of that dramatic part of be-
haviour, denominated good breeding, to make it bearable.
Great commanders are apt to acquire a reserved demeanor,
short diction, and peremptory tone. To a noble and com-
manding figure, a perfect mastery over an admirable voice, de-
liberate and collected faculties, was added a manner peculiarly
fascinating. In the same speech he would descend occasion-
ally to colloquial familiarity, and rise incidentally to epic sub-
limity. His irony was strong, provoking, and dignified, his
invectives terrible, and his ridicule irresistible. We would re-
mark, however, that when a man in any station or profession
has become transcendently eminent, every thing he says elicits
applause, while criticism and censure stand deaf, dumb, and
blind. Take an example.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 191

When Mr. Pitt's brother-in-law, the Right Hon. George
Grenville, was speaking earnestly in the House of Commons,
he not only raised a loud laugh at his expense, but actually
fixed upon that able and very respectable man the ridiculous
appellation of " the Gentle Shepherd." The occasion was no
more than this. There was a very popular song or ditty, bor-
dering on the silly, sung everywhere, — in the theatres, great
and small, and in every street and every square and court in
London, even to annoyance, by every beggarly ballad-singer
and kitchen-maid, and was in every mouth and every ear ;
the chorus to every stanza was, — " Where, — oh tvhere, — Gentle
Shepherd, — tell me where." Mr. Grenville was speaking,
solemnly, of the discouraging lack of money for a certain pur-
pose then under debate, when he exclaimed oratorically, —
" Wliere is your money, — where are your means, — yes, — where,
I say, is your money?" and then sat down to give more effect
to his pathetic question. At this moment Mr. Pitt hobbled
slowly out of the House with his flannels and crutches, hum-
ming the tune, — " Oh where, — Oh Gentle Shepherd ! tell me
where, — Oh where ! " The effect was instantaneous and elec-
tric, and the tout ensemble was irresistible. The House
shook with laughter, and settled for ever on Mr. George
Grenville the appellation of " the Gentle Shepherd."

This mirthful anecdote shows, better than a long disserta-
tion, the magical ascendancy of Pitt over the Parliament of
England. Napoleon, in all his power and glory, had hardly
more ascendancy over his council, than the illustrious Com-
moner over the British Senate, by every species of oratory,
from the solemn to the playful.

One anecdote more. Horace Walpole, afterwards Lord
Orford, attended a " caucus," held at the Cockpit, in Novem-
ber, 1755, where Mr. Pitt made a long speech, which he
thus describes ; — " Pitt surpassed himself; and then I need
not tell you that he surpassed Cicero and Demosthenes. What
a figure would they, with their formal, labored, cabinet orations,
make vis-a-vis his manly and dashing eloquence. I never sus-

J 92 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

pected Pitt of such an universal armoury. I knew he had a
Gorgon's head, composed of bayonets and pistols, but little
thought that he could tickle to death with a feather. On the
first debate [on the Hanoverian and Russian treaties], Hume
Campbell, whom the Duke of Newcastle has retained as the
most abusive council he could find against Pitt, attacked him
for his ' eternal invectives.'' Oh ! since the last phillipic of Bil-
lingsgate memory, you never heard such an invective as Pitt
returned ! Campbell was annihilated ! Pitt, like an angry
wasp, seems to have left his sting in the wound, and has since
assumed a style of delicate ridicule and repartee. But think
how charming a ridicule must that be that lasts, and rises,
flash after flash, for an hour and a half ! ' :

Now such an ambidextrous genius could write any thing,
any how, of any body, and trust posterity with his reputation.
On one occasion, he looked Lord Chief Justice Mansfield
down by absolute staring ; and, after directing all eyes on the
mild dignity of that great man, and saying that he should use
but few words, but those should be daggers, he exclaimed, in
a voice of thunder, " Judge Felix trembles : He shall hear
from me some other day" — and sat down. Supposing Chatham
to be Junius, can we wonder at his bitter invectives in print
against Mansfield, after reflecting on what fell from his lips in
Parliament ?

We can exhibit Chatham's thoughts to the eye upon paper
at this distance of time and space, but we lose his manner.
His warm admirers have said,* You should have seen him, that
you might have witnessed " the terrors of his beak and the
lightnings of his eye." They talk too of his angry expression,
and look of ineffable contempt, and say that he sometimes stared
his opponent out of countenance, — then, in a strong, grand,
and thundering voice, poured upon the abashed subject a hot
and heavy torrent of invective, as in the instance just men-
tioned, leaving the House in a languor of amazement.

* Butler's Reminiscences.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 193

Beside the awe-imposing looks of Lord Chatham, we hear of
his fascinating bow of condescending protection. Consum-
mate orators must necessarily be complete actors ; and it is
said, that no man becomes a great actor on the stage until he
has surmounted the common feelings of men, and put his
foot upon tender-heartedness. Is this applicable to our great
Statesman or to Junius ? It has been remarked, that Lord
Chatham's commanding eloquence had a tendency to impress
the listener with a something more to be dreaded than his mere
words, that the man was greater than the orator ; whereas in
Burke the orator appeared greater than the man.*

I am at a loss for the proper epithet to designate that kind
of vituperative oratory in which Lord Chatham sometimes in-
dulged. I venture, however, to assert, that there is notlnng in
our language which resembles it so much as certain portions of
tjie Letters of Junius. But I do not restrict the parallel to the
raging style of invective ; I extend the observation to the care-
ful and apparently simple diction in the speeches of the one,
and in the writings of the other ; — simple, select, and natural,
like the exquisite statuary of ancient Greece, it is less striking
at first, because nearer to nature than the art of the moderns,
and never tiring the gaze of refined taste.

One more confirmatory instance of the effects of Pitt's ora-
tory, or the dread of it, on the hardy John Wilkes, who men-

* Our North American Indians understand this perfectly. With
faces painted to frightfulness, they accompany their furious orations
in their treaty-councils with horrid grimaces, yells, and flourishes of
the tomahawk, to make an impression of something greater than reali-
ty. I should like to have seen the modern Demosthenes in one of our
American assemblies, wound up to the highest pitch of his oratorial
powers, vis-a-vis Jarnes Otis, Samuel or John Adams, or Patrick Henry.
Such a great orator might, for a moment, confuse these men, but never
daunt them. I doubt if such hornbeam*fibred men as those pioneers
of our revolution would have been daunted by "the terrors of his beak
or the lightning [of his eye." If great admiration be a suspension of
reason, and if we are liable sometimes to have our faculties struck, for
a moment, into undiscerning amazement, the elastic mind of true
courage soon recovers, and acts for itself in its own defence*

194 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

tioned to Reminiscent Butler, that, once when Mr. Pitt rose
and began to speak in a solemn and austere manner, he, Mr.
Wilkes, expecting a castigation for a conscious fault,* thought
the thunder was to fall upon him ; and he declared that he
never, while at Westminster-school, felt greater terror, when
called up to be chastised, than he did while the uncertainty
lasted ; or felt greater jubilation when he was pardoned, than
when he found the bolt was destined for another head. The
like awe-imposing effect was experienced by Mr. Wilkes when
he approached Junius, though a curtain intervened. He
stops and considers, if he can, without profanation, approach
nearer the object of his idolatry.

The celebrated Lord Chesterfield bears this testimony to
the superior eloquence of Lord Chatham. " He was haughty,
imperious, impatient of contradiction, and overbearing. He
had manners and address ; but one might discern through
them too great a consciousness of his own superior talents.
His eloquence was of every kind. His invectives terrible, and
uttered with such energy of diction, and such dignity of ac-
tion and countenance, that he intimidated those who were the
most willing and the best able to encounter him. Their arms
fell out of their hands, and they shrunk under the ascendant
which his genius gained over them."

It was in the year 1766, that Lord Chatham first advocated
in Parliament the principles of our resistance to their assumed
right to tax these unrepresented colonies. These were his pa-
thetic words, — " When the resolution was taken in this House
to tax America, I was in bed. If I could have endured to
have been carried in my bed, so great was the agitation of my
mind for the consequences, I would have solicited some kind
hand to have laid me down on this floor, that I might have
borne my testimony against it." He doubtless remembered
the stern character of those thoughtful Englishmen, who quit-
ted their native land in search of freedom, and found it in a

* Bribing the captain of a vessel to land certain London voters in
Norway, who took passage for Berwick, where they meant to vote.

CHARACTER AND DEATH OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 195

desert. He knew that such men, so transplanted, had left
sons that would resist unto blood, and if so, our independence
would be the natural consequence. His mind's eye saw this ;
and, courageous as he was, he shuddered at the prospect,
believing that so soon as Britain and America became seriously
roused to internecine combat, vindictive France would, by siding
with us, revenge the severe blows she received from England,
when Pitt directed the war against her. Under these appre-
hensions, the great Statesman appeared unhappy, towards the
close of his life, and his utterance perplexed, as if halting be-
tween two opinions, when the cause of the mother country and
our independence were subjects of debate. The supremacy
of Parliament was to be asserted, yet not exercised. He
dreaded the revival of the dangerous question of taxation,
" which ought" to use the words of Junius, " to have been
buried in oblivion" See his first Letter.

As an advocate of English liberty, according to the standard
erected at the revolution in 1688, Lord Chatham rejoiced at
our resistance, since our enslavement would but rivet the
chains of Englishmen ; as our alliance with France would pro-
duce arrogant triumphs, and possibly revive the detestable
maxim of — Delenda est Carthago. France had fought Britain
with one blade only of the shears of destruction. Had Ameri-
ca joined her at the French revolution, and acted consenta-
neously, Britain would probably have experienced something
like a second French subjugation ; and the two rivetted blades
would have completed the shears of her fate.

Under some such apprehension, the venerable Seer felt as
a loyal subject and true Briton, — his patriotism strong in
death; — and what with exhaustion from disease, anxiety, and
conflicting passions, occasioned by some imprudent remarks
in the course of debate from a noble Duke, his friend, when
he rose to reply, he faltered, and sunk fatally under a con-
fused idea of impending evils,* leaving behind him a glorious
and untainted memory ! This was in the House of Lords,
in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-right.
* Lord Chatham expired at his own home.

CHAPTER VIII.

CERTAIN DIFFICULTIES POINTED OUT, AND DISCUSSED,

Having avowed our belief, that Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was
the author of the Letters under the signature of Junius, and
given a sketch of his life and character, it will be expected
that we give our reasons for the opinion. We acknowledge
the task to be encumbered with serious difficulties ; yet we
venture to encounter them, and should we fail, we would rather
lie under the imputation of presumptuousness than cowardice.

The theme has exercised cultivated and scrutinizing minds,
not merely as a question of amusing curiosity, but as involving
the history of the greatest men of the age, and of the greatest
event, comprehending principles and conduct which led, not
only to the independence of these English colonies on Britain,
but the separation of all America from the government of
Europe. It stops not here, but their discussion is reflected
back upon the old world with increased light and warmth,
changing, as it proceeds, the crescent to a full orb, operating
beneficently on the affairs of all men.*

Most of those, who have gone before us, had made their attack
by a coup-de-main and failed ; warned by their discomfiture,
we proceed slowly. The fortifications we are about to recon-

* .Algiers, a kingdom as large as all New England, has just sur-
rendered to enlightened France ; and the Turkish empire trembles
at the two-fold power that surrounds her.

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 197

noitre are works of a great master, — a Vauban in the art of
attack and defence. No one has circumvallated and entrench-
ed himself with more skill and caution than Junius. He has
not only put into practice every known art, but resorted to the
most refined species of deception ; — hence we pay little regard
to his assertions whenever his individual safety is concerned.

We have said that there has been more attention directed to
the dress of Junius, than to his person, — more observance of his
style and diction, than of his mind, feelings, rank, and condition.
The best way of judging of the soul of such a writer,-— the surest
way of scanning his principles, motives, and intentions, would be
to translate his writings into the Dutch language. This would
be to strip him of that which dazzles the eye, and diverts atten-
tion from the main object. It would be changing Junius's ar-
mour of polished steel for a common garb. It is very hard to
know a man who is all mind, and whose primary object is dis-
guise and concealment. That every writer of genius has a
style and manner by which he is known, is, in a great measure,
true ; so every man has a natural gait and gesture ; but the
drill-sergeant and the dancing-master alter these peculiarities
for the exercise of the field and the ball-room, where disci-
pline and art bridle nature. So in writing, discipline may put
on a habit of disguise, provided the assumed dress be inferior
to the original one. But whenever the individual discusses the
same subject, at one time as a writer, and at another as an
orator, it is very difficult to depart from his natural manner
without dishonoring truth, or soiling principle. Now, the same
determined national principles run through the writings of Ju-
nius, which shine in the speeches of Lord Chatham.

That such a writer as Junius should speak in a public as-
sembly like Chatham, no one will contend, who thinks of Ad-
dison and Gibbon ; but that such a consummate orator as
Chatham should be able to write like Junius, few will deny.
The utmost resolution, in the first case, might fail, but may al-
ways succeed in the last. The most accurate engraver of the
most tasteful and beautiful chirography commonly writes worse

198 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

than other men. So if the most finished orator would but take
the pains, he could, by striving, make himself an equally spirited
and polished writer, as was the ambitious Cicero among the Ro-
mans, and Burke among the Britons ; — Dii laborious omnia
vendunt, — the gods do not give, but sell every thing to indus-
try. Lord Chatham was a prodigy of industry. It is said,
that, when a young man, he read Bailey's Dictionary, the
best then extant, regularly through twice, and that he com-
mitted several of Dr. Isaac Barrow's sermons to*memory for
the sake of their energetic diction.* How long would it take
such a genius as Chatham to acquire a knowledge of his
native tongue equal to that attained by an inferior star in the
political firmament of Britain, John Home Tooke ?

Allowing the Earl of Chatham to have been, what he cer-
tainly was, a polished scholar, of transcendent eloquence, with
a rich and exhaustless mine of political information and ener-
getic expressions, can it not be conceived, that such an ex-
perienced minister, in his horce solitaries, could give to epis-
tles, or short essays, the strength and precision of Barrow, with
the pencil of Milton, and yet appear like neither of them ?
Beside, who shall set bounds to the combined force of genius,
judgment, industry, courage, and deep resentment, when winged
by a belief of the danger of his country fast rolling to the brink
of a precipice ? A condition of things enough to make the
dumb speak. Reflect, reader, on the case before us. Orato-
ry had uttered its warning voice in vain. The utmost powers
of eloquence had failed. The love of country was ready to
resign itself to despair.

But patriotism rallied and took a new stand, resolved to
effect by the Pen what the transitory pomp of declamation had
failed to accomplish. To wing the strongest arguments with
the bitterest invectives and the keenest satire, requires some-
thing more than the breath of man. It requires that most
potent of all instruments, the Pen, a weapon most to be relied

* Butler's Reminiscences.

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 199

on ; and not the less so if the hand only appears upon the
wall, while the body to which it belongs is invisible.*

In fixing the authorship of Junius where we think it be-
longs, we calculated on encountering great difficulties, — very
great difficulties ; and we have met what we expected. The
birth-place of Homer has never been ascertained ; yet that
mighty genius did not exert his extraordinary powers, and
tax his ingenuity, subtilty, and contrivance, to delude the
people, and lure them away from the thing sought, as Junius
has studiously and intently done, purposely to elude our search
by systematic deception, in order to secure himself and family
from destruction. In forming such a resolution, nay, determi-
nation, he must have stipulated with his conscience respecting
his infringement of truth. Instances of such trespass on strict
veracity may be found in the history of every age and people,
even in holy history. Abraham denied Sarah to be his wife ;
that pattern of purity and a good conscience, Joseph, said to
his brothers, all of whom he knew, — " By the life of King
Pharaoh ! ye are spies, come to see the nakedness of the
land." The conduct of the prophet Jeremiah, in his inter-
course with the king, may be mentioned ; and what is still
stronger, Peter, the patron Saint of three quarters of the Chris-
tian world, went beyond them all in falsehood. We hope
to tread this holy ground with caution and due reverence.
" Skin for skin ; all that a man hath will he give for his
life."

Concerning the concealment of truth from those ivho have no
right to be made acquainted with it, much may be said. He
who has read most of history will be best able to settle the point,
when we say, that it has been the practice of some of the most

* The arrow, the most potent of all visible weapons, is a compound
of the spear and the feather, — the pen and the sword; the one to pierce
the hostile invader, the other to direct it aright. It ought to have
been the emblem, or ensign armorial of these United States, instead of
Jove's solitary bird of prey, wliose usual residence is on some light-
ning-blasted tree, or barren rock in a dreary desert, the waste of
ages.

200 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

distinguished sovereigns, ambassadors, generals, and reformers,
in all ages, to withhold the truth, when they thought prudence
forbade it to be revealed ; and this has been called wisdom.

When Junius was uttering oracular truths from behind a
curtain, what right had the people, or the law itself, to demand
his name or see his person. The guilty Assyrian asked the
prophet Daniel only the meaning of the terrific hand-writing,
and, when deeply afflicted by the prediction of the calamities
about to come upon his kingdom, he demanded not the sight
of the person who inscribed the portentous letters on the walls
of his palace. So George the Third saw only the hand, with-
out knowing the person to whom it belonged, and disbelieved
the prediction, until Time and History gave the interpretation.

It is an equally arduous and ungrateful task to vindicate the
use of equivocation, and evasion of truth, by a man of otherwise
unimpeached integrity, and possessing a high sense of honor.
Very rigid moralists, bookish men of the closet, secluded from
the world, say, that an honest man dares no more look a false-
hood, than utter one. But stratagem, the sublime part of the
art of war, what is it other than to deceive ? — to hold up an
appearance of something which is not intended, while under
that mask some important object is secured ? The best and
greatest men of this country, and of others, have added to their
renown by practising it.

From subterfuges like those just mentioned, the main diffi-
culties attending our determination of the person of Junius
arise ; and were they absolutely inconsistent with that high and
honorable character which we attribute to him, our researches
would be at an end. But even should it be impossible to vin-
dicate such practices inforo divino, may we not apologize and
extenuate them when speaking from man to his fellow-man ?
Do not w y e find every day, that fear of personal harm, loss of
property, and dread of public shame, induce a majority of the
people, and not a small one, to go beyond evasion even to a
flat denial ? Our very laws countenance it in the plea of
" not guilty." Nor is such conduct ever made a question;

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. OQ1

when a man has to do with a highwayman, a pirate, or a mur-
derer. Fortunately we have a competent judge of the very
point at issue, in the great English moralist, Samuel Johnson,
which we give in the following dialogue between that great
man and his devoted disciple, Boswell.. " Supposing, Sir,
the person who wrote Junius were asked whether he was the
author, might he deny it 9 " — Johnson. " I don't know what
to say to this. If you were sure that he wrote Junius, would
you, if he denied it, think as well of him afterwards ? Yet it
may be urged, that when a man has no right to ask, you may
refuse to communicate ; and there is no other effectual mode
of preserving a secret, the discovery of which may be very
hurtful to you, but aflat denial; for if you are silent, or hesi-
tate, or evade, it will be held equivalent to a confession. But
stay; here is another case. Supposing the author had told
me confidentially, that he had written Junius, and I were ask-
ed if he had, I should hold myself at liberty to deny it, as be-
ing under a previous promise, expressed or implied, to conceal
it. Now, what I ought to do for the author, may I not do
for myself "? " *

Junius had the confidence to say to his printer, — " Be as^
sured, that it is not, in the nature of things, that they, or you,
or any body else, should ever know me, unless I make myself
known. All arts, or inquiries, or rewards, would be equally
ineffectual." We are therefore prepared to doubt, if not de-
ny, any assertion or insinuation concerning himself, because he

* I should wish to know what the strict followers of George Fox
and William Ptnn would have said to Samuel Johnson's case of con-
science. The Earl of Chatham said, in the House of Peers, in 1770, —
" I do not say, my Lords, that corruption lies here, or that corruption
lies there ; but, if any gentleman in England were to ask me, whether
I thought both Houses of Parliament were bribed, I should laugh in
his face and say, — ' Sir, it is not so ! '" Does the laugh sanctify the
falsehood ; or might the Peer, who " on honor's cap is the very button" \
jitter words contrary to what he knew was the truth.

f Shakspeare.

202 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

starts fair with the public, and says, in pretty plain terms, — I will,,
by every means in my power, conceal myself. I am the sole
depository of my own secret. We remove this bold asser-
tion at once, by pronouncing the thing to be impossible in the
nature of things, and we shall prove it by his own words, un-
less the grave had closed upon his scribes and copyists before
he wrote his Dedication.

When such an eminent personage, as the one we suppose
to be the author of the Letters, exalted above his peers by
force of superior and varied talents, had resolved to address,
anonymously, the King, the Parliament, and the people of
England ; to reprehend one, to reprove and reproach the oth-
ers ; to assail with the keenest satire and the sharpest invectives
certain obnoxious individuals in high stations, his first, his chief-
est care must have been that of his own security, — absolute and
perfect concealment of his person. He knew that every thing,
character, usefulness, influence, and even existence, depended
on impenetrable concealment.* It was necessary this con-
cealment should extend, not merely to the external evidence,
as the hand-writing and the transmission of the letters, but to
the internal evidence that might be gathered from style, man-
ner, facts, and sentiments, communicated in them. If discov-
ery might not have been fatal to his existence, prosecution and
conviction of libel might have been utterly destructive of his
fame, fortune, influence, and happiness. He must have con-
sidered well the thin partition which divides great fame from the
deepest misfortune in kings and prime ministers. While de-
liberating on his plan, he must have weighed his own powers and
means, before pre-determination took a step, and have been wide
awake to every probable and possible danger of discovery.
He must have premised never to utter a word that might direct
attention to his person, excite suspicion of his rank, or en-
courage a guess of his peculiar character or station beyond
that of marked respectability, which he could not conceal.

* " I am sure I should not survive the discovery three days." — Junius.

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 203

Above all, he must have presumed on his power of diverting
the prying eye of curiosity in such a city as London, which he
knew would be very busy in hunting out his personality. To
obviate this great danger he must have agreed with his con-
science not to boggle at evasions and deceptions and denials ;
bestowing, at the same time, on himself, a harmless sneer,
grounded on his age or morbid infirmity, and dropping now and
then a seemingly careless, though deeply studied phrase or
sentence of commendation and respect, all calculated to divert
the mind of the reader from the real object of the nation's cu-
riosity and the court's vengeance. Examples of this may be
seen here and there in the Letters of Junius relative to the
venerable Chatham, which, though sarcastic, are softened
down by degrees, until they end in a remarkable strain of
panegyric.

This conduct is neither strange nor unwarrantable. All ani-
mated nature has more or less of it.

O thou Goddess .'

Thou divine nature !

that teachest the sitting or nursing partridge never to rise from
directly over her nest, but to run creeping along in the grass
to some distance from it, before she exposes herself on the
wing. She as instinctively stops her flight at as remote a
distance from her nest, and returns to it under the cover of the

herbage.

" 'T is wonderful,

That an invisible instinct should frame them
To protection unlearn'd, — safety untaught ;
Security not seen from others."
Next to mere instinct, and very like it, comes the wiliness
of the savage of our forests in his war with white men, whom
he seldom fails to circumvent or elude. It is situation, cir-
cumstances, and necessity, that excite mind, muscle, and in-
stinct, to self-preservation. Within the circle of the idea here
started, what manifold subterfuges, lures, resources, refined de-
ceptions, and juggling might be practised by one of the ablest,
most indefatigable, best informed, prompt, and most sapient

204 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

of the sons of men, — all sense, all intellect, — a general, a sen-
tinel, an orator, a consummate politician, a juggler, a spirit pres-
ent in every department, and acquainted with all the opera-
tions of the body politic, and its limbs diplomatic, — a man in
whom decrepitude of body sharpened his mental and instinc-
tive faculties, always on the stretch till he became more than a
match for any other man. Such a man alone could have been
the author of the Letters, and been able, during the long
course of three years, to have transmitted them, and corres-
ponded with the printer of them, undetected.

Assuming that Junius and Lord Chatham were the same,
we meet, in the first letter, a passage that appears, at the first
blush of the business, fatal to our hypothesis. It follows.

" When Mr. Grenville was placed at the head of the Treasu-
ry, he felt the impossibility of Great Britain's supporting such
an establishment as her former successes had made indispen-
sable, 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 of the empire, who had been benefited
most by the expenses of the war, should contribute something
to the expenses of the peace ; and he had no doubt of the con-
stitutional right vested in Parliament to raise the contribu-
tion.

" But," says Junius, " unfortunately for this country, Mr.
Grenville was, at any rate, to be distressed because he was
minister ; and Mr. Pitt and Lord Camden were to be the
patrons of America, because they were in opposition. Their
declaration gave spirit and argument 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."

This is a profound and labored paragraph, with an insinua-
tion, which the writer tried to abet by adding thereto a note in
these words, — " Yet Junius has been called the partisan of
Lord Chatham.''''

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 205

Place yourself, reader, in the situation of Junius, actuated
by all those views he manifestly entertained ; possessing a fund
of information respecting the court and the government, so
minute and extensive, as none but an experienced courtier could
have accumulated ; projecting a series of Letters to his coun-
trymen, instilling principles of civil liberty, and the necessity
of restraining the royal prerogative, as well as effecting a gene-
ral reform, which alone Junius seemed to think could save
the empire from ruin ; uniting at once talents of the highest
order, with an indifference to office and emolument, which
his very concealment makes unquestionable ; and very proba-
bly feeling sore by a sense of injury from the monarch,
and insults from his interior, irresponsible cabinet. Let the
reader, I say, thus substantiating the shadow, ask himself, — Who
is the man most likely to be charged with this hand-writing on
the ivall ? If what we have said has any weight, the answer
will be the Earl of Chatham, and he alone. What other
man had his provocations ? Moreover, who, beside him, had
the knowledge discoverable in these Letters ? Who had the
honor and glory of Old England more at heart ? And, which
is not the weakest argument, who had that Demosthenical elo-
quence for exposing all these things, so glowing in the pages
of Junius, but he who transcended all others for that " supe-
rior genius which animates and directs him to eloquence in de-
bate, and wisdom in decision."

What then must the man in the visor do, if he really be
Chatham himself? He must commence his operations by
warding off a blow, which might be destructive to his whole
plan in all its ramifications. No means to accomplish this end
could be more effectual, than severity of remark upon himself,
even to abuse, and upon his dear friend, Lord Camden. Ac-
cordingly, to the high-minded Lord Chatham, and to that pil-
lar of the constitution, Earl Camden, Junius attributes, in the
words already cited, a spirit of vulgar and mean opposition,
bent, wickedly bent, on the ruin of a minister, though it should
cost half of an empire ! What a diabolical spirit must have

206 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

entered the hearts of those eminent men, were the accusation
true ! We shall prove hereafter, that Junius himself did not
believe it.

After this, what reader, but of the most scrutinizing class,
would even suspect, that this foul accuser, Junius, and Lord
Chatham, were one and the same person. Bear in mind,
reader, that his settled purpose was to deceive the multitude
as it regarded himself ; and to the multitude, without distinc-
tion of rank and condition, did he write, and in a style the
most studied and peculiar. The deep deception marked the
master spirit, and its efficacy was complete.

If we examine the deep reproach itself, which is indeed con-
tumelious, could the accusation have been sincere ? Certainly
not. Junius well knew that odium could not attach itself to
either of those illustrious Peers. Did the opposition of Lord
Chatham and of Lord Camden to the measure of Mr. Gren-
ville " in effect divide one half of the empire from the other " ?
Junius knew better. We, Americans, know better, and ab-
solve them from the charge, and Junius from the folly of be-
lieving it.

It is also worthy of remark, that Junius denounces the con-
duct of Chatham and Camden, while he himself scarcely wrote
a sentence that was not pregnant with the same spirit which,
at that time, pervaded the speeches of those two venerable
Statesmen. His invective could not have been sincere, since
the abuse is equally applicable to himself; nay, it is at perfect
variance with the high, the very high applause which he be-
stows on both of them ; on Lord Chatham in his Fifty-fourth
Letter, and upon Lord Camden, in his solemn, valedictory ad-
dress, when he appears to drop his mantle on him, enjoining
him to sacrifice, in the Temple of Justice, the victim, Mans-
field, whom he had dragged bound to her altar.

It is furthermore remarkable, how cautiously Junius pre-
pares his reader to receive gradually his' high eulogy of Lord
Chatham, by saying, in the same letter, — " It is not in the lit-
tle censure of Mr. Home, to deter me from doing signal jus-

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 207

tice to a man who, / confess, has grown upon my esteem."
Can any one conceive that a character like that of Pitt, Earl of
Chatham, renowned to celebrity, famous through the reign of
George the Second, and firmly established throughout the civil-
ized world before Junius began to write, could grow so fast in
his esteem, as that, within the short space of two years, from
being the wretch, — yes, the wretch, who could divide one half
of the empire from the other merely to ruin a minister, should
deserve, — we use the very words of Junius, — that " recorded
honors should gather round his monument and thicken over
him " ; furthermore, that these praises he bestowed upon him
" would wear well, for they had been dearly earned."

We intreat the reader to ponder these things.

We shall treat this high but singular panegyric, professedly
in its proper place, and only observe, in passing, that Junius
says in the Fifty-fourth Letter, just cited, " I am willing enough
to suppose, that, in public affairs, it would be impossible to de-
sert or betray Lord Chatham without doing an essential injury
to this country." And he speaks of Saville, Richmond, Cam-
den and Chatham, as fathers of their church and objects of
political worship. Weighing and considering these things, can
we believe, that the denunciatory passage, cited from the first
Letter of Junius, had its foundation in truth and sincerity ?
Or was it throwing sand in the eyes of the pursuer ?

Nor is it altogether unworthy of notice, that, in the same
very weighty paragraph, the able writer glances at " Britain's
former successes" which he could not but know were attrib-
utable to the glorious administration of the very man who was
mean enough, base enough, to risk the integrity of the em-
pire, if he could but pull down a minister, and that minisier,
the Right Hon. George Gromille, the brother-in-law of Lord
Chatham.

Junius has been studied like an academic model, from va-
rious points of view, but not from every point. We, at this
distance, may view him from a point in the circle of artists, but
slightly attended to in Britain, if not wholly neglected. To

208 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

my own eye it appears, that, if insincerity was ever made out
against any man, we have demonstrated this accusation against
Lords Chatham and Camden to be insincere. We view it as
one of those blinds or lures, practised by Junius, to divert
attention from his person at his first setting out.

Having surmounted one difficulty, we are met by another,
yet are we not discouraged ; and though we may not remove
it, we will try, encouraged with the hope of coming to level
ground again.

The Right Hon. George Grenville had quoted a passage
from Blackstone's Commentaries, which directly contradict-
ed the doctrine maintained by that celebrated lawyer in the
House of Commons. Sir William Blackstone was, at that
time, solicitor-general to the Queen. He was touched so-
painfully by the incident, that he wrote a pamphlet in defence
of his reputation in the " insipid form of a third person," which
occasioned Junius to address him. And he says to him,,
" Your pamphlet then is divided into an attack on Mr. Gren-
ville's character, and a defence of your own. It is not my
design to enter into a formal vindication of Mr. Grenville upon
his own principles. / have neither the honor of being person-
ally known to him, nor do I pretend to be completely master of
the facts."

The rest of the letter is principally employed in vindicating
Mr. Grenville's character and conduct against the attack of
Blackstone, and in clearing it from every stain of blame, but is
little connected with our present object, except as it leads us to
remark the friendly solicitude of Junius for the honor of that
indefatigable minister and worthy man ; * and to notice a short

* " Mr. Grenville was, above all men, the declared favorite of Junius.
He never censured him, but embraced every occasion of defending and
extolling his conduct and principles, and therefore must have known
him." — From a pleasant work by E. H. Barker, Esq. that has just come
to my hands. The Rev. Mr. Thackeray says, of all the members of
the Grenville family, Mr. Pitt ever distinguished the elder brother by

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 209

passage, viz. — " You are a lawyer, Sir, and know better than
I do, upon what particular occasions a talent for misrepresenta-
tion may he fairly exerted."

Is it probable, is it credible, that Junius, conversant, be-
yond all doubt, in courts, cabinets, palaces, and parliaments,
acquainted with offices in every department of government,
could be unknowing of, and unknown to, the Right. Hon. George
Grenville, who, in Junius's day, had been Prime Minister, and,
for a long time, a leader in the House of Commons. Our
author, a master-spirit, who appears to know every body else
of distinction, pretends that he and Mr. Grenville are unknown
to each other ! Speaking severely of the Duke of Grafton, he
says, " My abhorrence of the Duke arises from an intimate
knowledge of his character." He knew, it seems, minutely,
the character of Mr. Wilkes, and Sawbridge, and all the Dii
minorum gentium, as well as the majorum, and of him, who is
too exalted to be cited, — and yet had no acquaintance with a
man, who occupied so large a space in his own and in the pub-
lic estimation ; a gentleman, whose name and political charac-
ter, as the reputed father of the American stamp-act, is well
known in this country.

Now, if Junius and Chatham were one and the same per-
son, we perceive at once the delicacy of acknowledging ac-
quaintance with Mr. Grenville and his brother Lord Temple,
the latter of whom, though a noble whig and of great influ-
ence, is never once mentioned by Junius. Mr. Grenville's
subserviency 10 the sovereign's strong wishes respecting an
American revenue, and particularly the stamp-act, needed ex-
planation, palliation, and extenuation, to the people of both
hemispheres ; and Junius did not neglect it. He speaks, in his
Fifteenth Letter, of " the shrewd, inflexible judgment of Mr.
Grenville, and the mild, but determined integrity of Lord
Rockingham." And in a note to the younger Woodfall's

the most cordial attachment ; but he was inferior to his brother George,
both in judgment and amplication.

210 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

edition, the editor remarks, that — " The warm attachment of
Junius to every part of the conduct of this distinguished
Statesman [George Grenville], may, perhaps, import some-
thing more than a mere political concurrence of sentiment, and
indicate an ardent personal friendship ."

Taking it for granted, and I cannot believe otherwise, that
the author of the Letters in question was known to Mr. Gren-
ville, let us see if we can possibly clear him from the impu-
tation of uttering. a deliberate falsehood with intent to deceive.
He might whisper to his conscience, that he meant, ' not
known to Mr. Grenville as Junius ' ; implying his, Mr. Gren-
ville's, not partaking the secret. We go one step farther, and
crave permission, in this difficulty, to recur to the primitive
meaning of the words person and personally ; for in this the
stress lies ; — a word that will bear the strain of interpreting it
to denote the assumed character, and not the proper person,.
— the visor or mask, under which Junius might allow him-
self to say, ' I have not the honor of being personally known
to him in my visor and complete armour, with only this in-
scription on my shield, Stat nominis umbra.'' May it not bear
this fair construction ? ' I, being personatus, that is, disguised
in my helmet, like an ancient knight, engaged in redressing
wrongs, have not, in consequence of it, the honor of being
known to him, although he is very well known to me.' Some
may think, that this is picking the strands of a Jesuitical
rope to its primitive oakum ; yet if there be any thing respect-
able in this argument, — if it be not absolutely trifling, then it
will follow, that there is not a positive denial, but an equivoque
subservient to his plan, and rendered necessary to the vital
secret, on which depended more than the writer's life. I have
a right to consider this equivoque a device subordinate to his
plan, because Junius is remarkable for planning. In a private
letter Mr. Wilkes complained piteously of his too severe cas-
tigation of him in the year 1769 ; when he said soothingly to
him, — " Think no more of what is past. You did not then
stand so well in my opinion ; and it was necessary to the plan

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 211

of that letter to rate you lower than you deserved " ; that is,
variant from the truth.

In trying to remove this second difficulty we would remark,
that few people consider the power of internal evidence.
The multitude look for the highest degree of proof, for ab-
solute certainty, in such a world as this. There is in nature a
strong evidence of things not seen. But I cannot do better,
in illustrating this subject, than use the words of Junius himself.

" I still maintain, that the conduct of this minister carries
with it an internal and convincing evidence against him. Sir
William Draper seems not to know the value or force of such
a proof. He will not permit us to judge of the motives of
men by the manifest tendency of their actions, nor by the no-
torious character of their minds. He calls for papers and
witnesses with a triumphant security, as if nothing could be
true, but what could be proved in a court of justice. Yet a
religious man might have remembered upon what foundation
some truths, most interesting to mankind, have been received
and established. If it were not for the internal evidence
which the purest of religions carries with it, what would have
become of his once well-quoted decalogue, and of the meek-
ness of his Christianity." *

We would apply this exposition of the force of internal evi-
dence to what we have already said, and may yet say, in the
course of our search after a powerful being who had deter-
mined on concealment ; and shall only remark here, that no
man in London, of general information on the subjects we have
discussed, could believe, that the writer of the Letters of Ju-
nius and Mr. George Grenville were unknown to each other in
the ordinary intercourse of persons of the same rank in socie-
ty with Junius. To the force of this kind of evidence we
confidently appeal.

There is yet a third difficulty, — another lure thrown out to
divert the keen pursuer after the person of Junius. I mean

* Letter xxvii.

212 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

the celebrated eulogy recorded in the Fifty-fourth Letter of
the collection. It was the first thing which impressed strongly
upon my mind, that Lord Chatham was in reality Junius him-
self, and that full fifty years ago. Increasing time has not di-
minished the idea, but strengthened it, like the bias of insanity.

The wise and wary Junius overshot himself, when he,
through misinformation or conjecture, accused the Rev. John
Home of treachery to his party. Home's misfortune was an
overweening self-sufficiency and a jealousy of his compatriots,
particularly of Wilkes, who, he thought, monopolized popu-
larity. It never appeared that Mr. Home contemplated to
desert to the enemy with his arms, as Junius seems to insinu-
ate ; but he was considered the Marplot of every party to
which he belonged, and Junius aimed to check and confound
him without offending his friends. Home's ready and correct
pen was valuable to the city patriots, who were more men of
business than of letters. He was very active in getting up and
maintaining the Society for the Support of the Bill of Rights ;
yet he divided and set at variance those members of it, who,
like himself, envied Wilkes his gainful patriotism. John Home
was a bustling, overbearing man, who deserted, in a great
measure, his clerical duties to scuffle with politicians, and he
suffered accordingly. This learned gentleman, since better
known by the agnomen of Tooke, beside constitutional intre-
pidity, had a clear and logical head, with no small portion of
" John-Battery " ; but no party had entire confidence in him.
That we may not be even suspected of uncharitableness to-
wards an eminent literary character, we shall exhibit his se
ipse pinxit picture.

In 1766, he writes from Montpelier to his friend John
Wilkes, Esq., at Paris, thus, — " You are now entering into a
correspondence with a parson, and I am greatly apprehensive,
lest that title should disgust ; but give me leave to assure you,
I am not ordained a hypocrite. It is true, I have suffered
the infectious hand of a bishop to be waved over me, whose
imposition, like the sop given to Judas, is only a signal for the

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 21 ^

devil to enter." That he could put off the clergyman and
put it on again, alternately, with his clothes, in England and in
France, is evident by the following short letter to his friend
Wilkes, in 1767.

" Dear Sir, — According to your permission, I leave with
you one suit of scarlet and gold ; one suit of white and silver
cloth ; one suit of blue and silver camblet ; one suit of flow-
ered silk ; one suit of black silk ; one black velvet surtout. If
you have any fellow-feeling, you cannot but be kind to them ;
since they too, as well as yourself, are out-lawed in England,
and on the same account, — their superior worth.

I am he. he. JOHN HORNE." *

That the sagacity of Junius should induce him to suspect a
man of this sort is not to be wondered at.

Partial as we may be to the heroic Junius, we must never-
theless confess, that he ran upon a snag when he attacked
Home ; f who appears, in one instance, to have pierced the

* Home says to Junius, — " You brought a positive charge against
me of corruption. I denied the charge, and called for your proofs.
You replied with abuse, and re-asserted your charge. I called again
for proofs. You reply again with abuse only, and drop your accusa-
tion. In your fortnight's Letter there is not one word upon the sub-
ject of my corruption."

Junius was evidently mistaken. But what was the reply of the
rough, unpolished Home to Junius? — You told a deliberate lie.

This is the wound given to the ghost of a great man, which
afforded such supreme delight to all it had terrified !

f In the Mississippi, the father of rivers and the Nile of America,
the never-ceasing current wears away its soft banks, and undermining
large trees, carries them down the stream, where they sometimes
gather in an everlasting tangle, laying the foundation of new islands ;
or else a tree sticks fast by its roots in the bottom of the river, and
whips one way and the other, according to the eddies, when it is called
a sawyer ; or else it gets a firm position by its roots against some oth-
er unseen body, with its limbs and largest branches opposed to the
current, forming a species of abatlis, with its sharp ends projecting un-
der water. These are called snags. Without experienced and adroit
pilots and great caution, boats are liable to run with force against
these subaquatic chevaux-de-frise, so as to pierce through their

214 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

valorous knight between the joints of his harness, so that he
writhed under it, and wrote him a private letter, ungraciously
apologetical, containing somewhat of abuse, yet, however, a
permission to publish it if he thought it would benefit him.
Home, as if he saw a flash of immortality, gave it publicity,
accompanied with a well written, Jesuitical reply ; which de-
lighted the court, as evidence of divisions in the councils and
forces of the city-patriots. He reaped an abundant crop of
reputation from this rencontre, the more from the delight which
most people take in seeing a notorious satirist satirized. Still
he gives a token of the highest respect for the unknown writer,
by wishing this line of Junius for his epitaph, viz. " Home's
situation did not corresjjond with his intentions " ; although a
perversion of the writer's meaning.
Let us now turn to Lord Chatham.

Mr. Home's Letter of the thirty-first of July, 1771, con-
tained some passages that must have nettled, if not mortified
Lord Chatham, the more so as coming from a professed ad-
mirer. It places that great man in a somewhat humiliating
situation before the public. He says of him, — " When Lord
Chatham can forgive the awkward situation, in which, for the
sake of the public, he was designedly placed by the thanks to
him from the city," &c. Again, — " 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." Here Mr. Home in-
cidentally notices the sympathy between Lord Chatham and
the man in the mask, and proceeds thus, — " I understand the
two great leaders of opposition to be Lord Rockingham and

planks, when they are either held fast, or sink at once. Rapid
steam-boats have, now and then, been sunk, before the baggage of
the passengers could be removed. Sometimes, as it was with Junius,
the damage is not so serious ; but enough to inspire the navigator with
more caution in his steerage, and a sharper look-out, under water as
well as above it. Whether, in his attack upon Home Tooke, he did
not run foid of a Snag is left to the judgment of the reader.

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 215

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." — " The mo-
tive, which dictated the thanks of the city to Lord Chatham,
was for his declaration in favor of short Parliaments, in order
thereby to fix Lord Chatham, at least, to that one constitution-
al 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 proceed. 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 friend-
ship or cordial assistance of the Rockingham faction." This
language from Mr. Home must have nettled Lord Chatham,
inasmuch as it was a narrative of facts malignantly represented.

It may be needful to say to the American reader, that the
city-of-London Patriots, mere mercantile politicians, required
of the lofty and high-minded Earl of Chatham, a hand-and-
seal promise to a specific plan of reform, like the instructions
of some of our towns to their members of Congress, should he,
by their influence, return again to the high office of Prime
Minister. It related to the question of short and long Parlia-
ments. On Lord Chatham's declining this counting-house
negotiation, Mr. Home accuses him, tauntingly, of evasion,
and abandonment of his principles, and attempts to hold him
up in a point of view bordering on derision.

We notice the circumstance, to show the extreme solicitude
of Junius on the occasion. The public waited, with impa-
tience, for his reply, which appeared in a fortnight after, in
which he said, — " I understand that the public are not satis-
fied with my silence ; and that, if I persist in refusing to plead,
it will be taken for conviction."

216 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

It is, on the whole, a curious Letter, and not free from
symptoms of soreness, anxiety, and embarrassment. He says,
whiningly, — " 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 labor in
the composition of these letters? "

The uneasiness of Junius, at that time, is perceptible
throughout his Letter [LIV. addressed to the Printer of the
Public Advertiser, August 15, 1771], and makes it worthy of
particular notice. He says in it, — " It seems I am. a partisan
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 esteem. As for the common, sordid views of
avarice, or any purpose of vulgar ambition, I question whether
the applause of Junius would be of service to Lord Chatham..
My vote will hardly recommend him to an increase of his pension,
or to a seat in the cabinet. But if his ambition be upon a
level with his understanding ; if he judges of what is truly
honorable for himself, with the same superior genius which ani-
mates and directs him to eloquence in debate, to ivisdom in
decision, even the pen of Junius shall contribute to reward
him. Recorded honors shall gather 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.''''

This is a very singular production from beginning to end.
Its singularity or circumstantiality is such, that scarcely two
readers put exactly the same construction on it. Mr. Heron,
one of the commentators on Junius, remarks, that his author
" suffered himself here to be betrayed into the burlesque, in

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 217

talking of laurels, even in figure, as if there were danger that
the weight of then might crush a funeral monument ; and that
the praise was artfully contrived to show, that Junius was not
Lord Chatham's creature.'''' Mr. Wilkes received several very
interesting private letters from the unknown Junius. He and
his friend, the Reminiscent Butler, amused themselves a con-
siderable time in trying to find out the author. Together they
reviewed, considered, and pondered the famous Letters with
great attention, sifting the anecdotes, weighing all the opinions,
and comparing the various conjectures ; and finished in despair.
When they came to this high-wrought panegyric on Lord
Chatham, they concluded it to be ironical. Nor do I much
wonder at their perplexity. Let any one try, as I have
done, to translate it into Latin or French, and its oddness will
induce him to think, that it is somewhat like a finely polished
knot of some very hard cabinet-wood, in which the beauty con-
sists in its gnarly intricacy, and the cross-grained entanglement
of its fibres, defying anatomy, yet altogether beautiful. Let
others try their hand at it, and speak the result. To my
own mind it looks as if it had been, at first, a lengthy eu-
logy, of which three fourths have been erased, leaving a mere
fragment of the original structure. This extorted praise appears
to me, not so much the sentiment of an observer, as the awk-
ward and embarrassed production of a conscious autographist,
hesitating under misgivings at every stroke of his pen. It ap-
pears, moreover, to me, that it was drawn out of Lord Chat-
ham, by Home Tooke's ungracious letter, placing his Lord-
ship in a painfully awkward position ; and that this strange enco-
mium helped him to change his uneasy posture. Beside, the
passage here commented on seems not a free and easy pro-
duction. Junius appears to go out of his way to lug in his
esteemed nobleman ; not to abuse him, as in his first Letter,
but to heap upon him a load of panegyric in one point of view,
and clumsy, niggardly praise in another. He adds, what had
better been left out, that this well-earned praise, and these
dear-bought recorded honors, are extorted from him.

2 I 8 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

May I repeat it, that this delusive eulogy was among the
first, the very first passages in the Letters, which roused my
suspicion, that Junius was in fact Lord Chatham, nor have the
revolving years of half a century diminished the early im-
pression. So far from it, — crescit eundo.

That the great Earl of Chatham should bestow praises upon
himself, anonymously, is a small obstacle in our way. The
great Roman orator and patriot praised himself without any
hesitation. Other great men have resorted to self-commenda-
tion, when forced to reply and defend themselves against dan-
gerous enemies. St. Paul did it without scruple ; and Junius
confessedly availed himself of this license, when, under the
signature of Philo-Junius, he magnifies himself, and smooths
it over in the preface to his own edition of the Letters, in these
words, — " But the subordinate character is never guilty of the
indecorum of praising his principal. The fraud was innocent,
and I always intended to explain it."

If the language of Junius, in the passage cited, go beyond
what Chatham could, with real modesty, have uttered of him-
self in public, I see little or nothing in those laudatory ex-
pressions, which consciousness of desert, in a mind equally
above vanity and hypocrisy, in the need of defence, might
not have forced him to write under the shadow of a name.

Lord Chatham, like Cicero, knew his own character in the
opinion of the world ; and he, as Junius, had only to give a
chaste sketch of it. Junius says, in his Fifteenth Letter, —
" The advice of the ablest men in the country has been re-
peatedly called for and rejected ; and when the royal dis-
pleasure has been signified to a minister, the marks of it have
usually been proportioned to his abilities and integrity," — writ-
ten doubtless to make the reader think of Lord Chatham with-
out naming him, as any other writer naturally would have done.
What smoothness and delicacy shine forth, now and then, amid
the acute angles of satirical resentment !

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 219

A writer in the Edinburgh Review for June, 1 826, Article
Icon Basilike, says, that " a simple test ascertains the politi-
cal connexion of Junius, the only circumstance which he
could not disguise, because it could not be concealed without
defeating his general purpose ; that he supported the cause of
authority against America with Mr. Grenville, the minister
who passed the stamp-act ; and that he maintained the high-
est popular principles on the Middlesex election with the same
statesman, who was the leader of opposition on that question ;
that no other party in the kingdom, but the Grenvilles', com-
bined these two opinions." And he adds, — " Whoever re-
vives the inquiry, respecting the authorship of Junius, should
show him to be politically attached to the Grenville party,
which Junius certainly was."

On this presumed agreement we differ widely from the re-
viewer. The doctrine of the authority of the British Parlia-
ment over America was generally popular throughout England
at the commencement of the dispute ; and even with a great
many at the beginning of the war. But we deny that Junius
was an advocate for the unqualified authority of the Parliament
over the colonies. In his first and justly celebrated Letter,
January 21, 1769, after speaking honorably of Mr. Grenville
at the beginning of it, he adds, before the close, these rather
taunting expressions, — " Under one administration the stamp-
act is made ; under the second it is repealed ; under the third,
in spite of all experience, a new mode of taxing the colonies
is invented, and a question revived which ought to have been
buried in oblivion." Here Junius and Mr. George Grenville
by no means accord. He then mentions the appointment of
the Earl of Hillsborough to the new office of Secretary of the
Colonies, and adds, — " As for his measures, let it be remem-
bered that he was called upon to conciliate and unite ; and
that, when he entered into office, the colonies were still dis-
posed to proceed by the constitutional methods of petition and
remonstrance. Since that period, they have been driven into
excesses little short of rebellion. Petitions have been hin-

220 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

dered from reaching the throne ; and the continuance of one
of the principal Assemblies [that of Massachusetts] rested up-
on an arbitrary condition," — that they should retract one of their
resolutions, and erase the entry of it, — " which, considering the
temper they were in, it was impossible they should comply
with. So violent, and, I believe I may call it, so unconstitu-
tional an exertion of the prerogative, gives us as humble 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 necessarily withdrawn or diminished, the dismission
of such a minister will neither console us for his impru-
dence, 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." Does
this look like advocating the authority of Britain over Ameri-
ca in any other than the qualified sense always maintained
by Lord Chatham ? and never qualified by Mr. Grenville.
The two most efficient men of the Grenville family were
Richard Lord Temple, and his next younger brother, George,
whom we have just mentioned, and who was the supposed
father of our stamp-act. That Junius was in accordance
with Lord Temple is pretty clear ; indeed the entire stream
of his opinions runs that way ; but Junius and George
Grenville never pushed or pulled together in politics, except
in the cause of the Middlesex election. Nevertheless Junius
discovers a marked partiality or predilection for Mr. Grenville
as a man.

I am ready to maintain, that Junius was not a strenuous ad-
vocate for the authority of the British Parliament over Ameri-
ca, in the same sense as over the people of England. I repeat

* Outrage, — to injure violently or contumeliously ; to insult roughly;
to commit exorbitances. — Johnson. Of all writers Junius is the most
remarkable for the nice selection of his terms.

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 221

it, — it was not a part of the plan of our author to discuss the
great American question. He ever touches it cautiously, and
always incidentally. He appears to dread lest violent measures
should create combinations of resistance in America, that might
probably end in her separation from the mother country. He
speaks of the doctrine of taxation as a matter beyond the clear
comprehension of the people at large ; and out of tenderness
to Mr. Grenville, gives it the name of contribution. In an in-
teresting private letter to Mr. Wilkes,* he says, " If you (the
supporters of the Bill of Rights) propose, that, in the article
of taxation, they [the Americans] should be hereafter left to
the authority of their respective assemblies, I must own, that
I think you had no business to revive a question which should,
and probably would, have lain dormant for ever." Does this
look like urging or favoring the cause of the Parliament, to
raise a revenue in America by taxing them without their con-
sent?

But to come to the point at once. Junius was infested by
a swarm of anonymous writers, amongst whom Mr. Home was
suspected ; and was urged and goaded to speak out his senti-
ments respecting the right of taxation over the Americans ; the
impressing of seamen ; and the game laws ; three cunningly de-
vised snares. In November 2, 1771, the following article ap-
peared in Woodfall's Public Advertiser.

" We are desired to make the following declaration, in be-
half of Junius, upon three material points, on which his opin-
ion has been mistaken or misrepresented.

" Junius considers the right of taxing the colonies by an
act of the British legislature, as a speculative right merely,
never to be exerted, nor ever to be renounced.''' 1 To his judg-
ment it appears plain, ' That 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.' "

* No. lxvi. — The younger Woodfall's edition.

222 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

The first clause is plain enough. It contains his own senti-
ments. The latter is the general reasonings of others, and sa-
vours of the lawyer, where the cuttlefish obscures the sight of
his pursuers by his effusion of ink. Now, a right never to be
insisted on, must be, in the opinion of every man of business,
a right abandoned. The two theories may not be absolutely
the same ; but, at most, there is here but a shadow of differ-
ence in opinion between himself and Lord Chatham. A shade,
if not more, might be deemed necessary to keep up the vital
deception respecting the person of Junius. In a private letter
to Mr. Wilkes, September 7, 1771, where he comments on
the resolves of the supporters of the Bill of Rights, he says to
him, — " Since the repeal of the stamp-act, 1 know of no act
tending to tax the Americans, except that which creates the
tea duty ; and even that can hardly be called internal. Yet it
ought to be repealed, as an impolitic act, not as an oppressive
one. It preserves the contention between the mother country
and the colonies, when every thing worth contending for is
given up.

" When this act is repealed, I presume you will turn your
thoughts to the postage of letters ; a tax imposed by the au-
thority of Parliament, and levied in the very heart of the colo-
nies." This is saying, in pretty plain terms, — Advise the
Americans to resist also the operation of our post-office act, as
it regards their country.* The writer in the Edinburgh Re-
view could, therefore, hardly have read Junius with due atten-
tion, when he asserted that he supported the cause of authority
against America with Mr. Grenville. We assert, and shall
prove hereafter, that Lord Chatham and Junius thought alike

*The Americans never viewed the postage of letters in the light of
a tax. It was a quid pro quo, — a service rendered ; a price paid for a
certain convenience. There was no compulsion. A man might take
his letter from the post-office or let it alone, send it hy his own ser-
vant, or by the hand of a friend. They never refused to pay custom-
house duties, nor ever objected to the British regulations of trade for
the general benefit of the whole empire.

DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 223

on the exercise of authority against the colonies. Junius never
speaks contemptuously of the Americans, but the reverse ; for
example, — " Neither the general situation of our colonies, nor
that particular distress, which forced the inhabitants of Boston
to take up arms in their defence." — What that particular dis-
tress was, may be learnt from the speech of Lord Chatham urg-
ing the removal of the British troops from the town, (page 225.)
Again, ' : The spirit of the Americans may be an useful exam-
ple to us." — " A series of inconsistent measures has alienated
the colonies from their duty as subjects, and from their natural
affection to their common country." And in his famous Letter
to the King. — " They [the Americans] left their native land in
search of freedom, and found it in a desert. Divided as they
are into a thousand forms of policy and religion, there is one
point in which they all agree ; they equally detest the pa-
geantry of a king, and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop.
It is not then from the alienated affections of Ireland or Ameri-
ca, that you can reasonably look for assistance."

Having shown the inclination of Junius (for we must again
remind the reader, that he touches incidentally only the great
American question), it is proper that we should exhibit the
positive opinion of Lord Chatham in regard to taxing America.
He had said in the House of Lords, to the surprise of super-
ficial thinkers, " I rejoice that America has resisted " ;
and his reason for it was this : Lord North, weary, probably,
with applications and expostulations, was known to have said,
that " It was to no purpose making objections, for the King
would have it so " ; and added, " that the King meant to
try the question with America, and Boston was fixed upon
as the proper place for it ; and thus a civil war was raised
against a country of whigs, to try that dangerous question."
The first step was to fill it with troops ; and on the twenty-
seventh of May, 1774, Lord Chatham attended the House of
Peers on the third reading of a bill for quartering soldiers in
America.

224 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

His re-appearance, after a long absence from Parliament,
was an epoch in its history, on which occasion he said, — " If
we take a transient view of those motives which induced the
ancestors of our fellow-subjects in America to leave their na-
tive country, to encounter the innumerable difficulties of the
unexplored regions of the western world, our astonishment at
the present conduct of their descendants will naturally sub-
side. There was. no corner of the world into which men
of their free and enterprising spirit would not fly with alacri-
ty, rather than submit to the slavish and tyrannical principles
which prevailed, at that period, in their native country. And
shall we wonder, if the descendants of such illustrious char-
acters spurn, with contempt, the hand of unconstitutional pow-
er, that would snatch from them such dear-bought privileges
as they now contend for?

" My Lords, this country is little obliged to the framers and
promoters of this tea tax. The Americans had almost forgot,
in their excess of gratitude for the repeal of the stamp-act, any
interest but that of the mother country. There seemed an
emulation among the different provinces, who should be most
dutiful and forward in their expressions of loyalty to their real
benefactor, as testified by a letter from Governor Bernard.

" This was the temper of the Americans, and would have
continued so, had it not been interrupted by your fruitless en-
deavours to tax them without their consent ."

In January, 1775, Lord Chatham appeared again in Parlia-
ment, when he powerfully urged the importance of immediate-
ly opening the way towards a happy settlement of the danger-
ous troubles in America. On which memorable occasion he said,

" My Lords ! These papers from America now laid, for the
first time, before you, have been, to my knowledge, five or
six weeks in the pocket of the ministry ; and, notwithstanding
the fate of this kingdom hangs upon the event of this great
controversy, we are but this moment called to a considera-
tion of this important subject. I do not wish to look into
one of those papers. I. know that there is not a member

SPEECH OF LORD CHATHAM. 225

of this House but is acquainted with their purport. There
ought, therefore, to be no delay in entering upon this matter.
We ought to seize the first moment to open the door of recon-
ciliation. The Americans will never be in a temper or state
to be reconciled, and they ought not to be, till the troops are
withdrawn. The troops are a perpetual irritation to these
people. I therefore move an humble address to be presented
to his Majesty, that orders may be despatched for removing his
Majesty's forces from the town of Boston, &ic. he. in the usual
parliamentary form of such bills.

" The way, my Lords, must be immediately opened for re-
conciliation. It will soon be too late. I know not who advised
the present measures. I know not who advises to a perse-
verance in them ; but this I will say, that whoever advises
them ought to answer for it at his utmost peril. I know that
no one will avow that he advised, or that he was the author
of these measures. Every one shrinks from the charge.*
Somebody has advised his Majesty to these measures ; and if
his Majesty continue to hear such evil counsellors, he will be
undone. His Majesty indeed may wear his crown, but, the
American jewel out of it, it will not be worth the wearing.

" What more shall I say ? I must not say that the King is
betrayed ; but this I will say, — the nation is ruined.

" What foundation have we for our claims over America ?
What is our right to persist in such cruel and vindictive meas-
ures against that loyal and respectable people. They say,
you have no right to tax them without their Consent. They
say truly. Representation and taxation must go together ;
yet there is hardly a man in our streets, though so poor as
scarcely able to get his bread, but thinks he is the legislator of

* Prophetical Chatham knew then, as we all have since, that the
coercion of* America was the King's own measure ; and her subjuga-
tion his darling object. The stamp-act was George the Third's favorite
scheme, and not Mr. Grenville's, — and next to that was Charles Tovvns-
hend's tea duty.

226 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

America. ' Our American subjects' is a common phrase in
the months of the lowest order of our citizens.

" Property, my Lords, is the sole and entire dominion of
the owner. None can meddle with it. It is an unity, a
mathematical point, an atom untangible by any but the pro-
prietor. Touch it and you contaminate the whole mass. The
touch of another annihilates it ; for whatever is a man's own
is absolutely and exclusively his own.

" In the last Parliament all was anger, all rage. Adminis-
tration did not consider what was practicable, but what was re-
venge. " Sine clade victoria" was the language of the min-
istry ; but every body knew, — an idiot might have known, that
would not have been the issue. But the ruin of the nation
was a matter of no concern, provided administration might be
revenged. The Americans were abused, misrepresented, tra-
duced in the most atrocious manner, in order to give a color,
and urge on to the most precipitate, unjust, cruel, and vindic-
tive measures that ever disgraced a nation.

" Gnossius luec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna ;
Castigatque, audiique doles." *

But how have these respectable people behaved under these
grievances ? With unexampled patience, with unparalleled wis-
dom. They chose delegates by their free suffrages ; — no
bribery, no corruption, no injluence here, my Lords ! Their
representatives meet, with the sentiments and the temper of

* It is worthy of remark, that Junius applies the same passage to
the same course of reasoning, in a note to a Letter to Lord Mansfield,
taken from Coke, 2 Tnst. 55, viz. " The philosophic poet doth notably
describe the damnable and damned proceedings of the judge of hell,
' Gnossius luec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna ;
Castigatque, audiique dolos, subigitque fateri.' "
First he punisheth, and then he heareth ; and, lastly, compelleth to
confess, and makes and mars laws at his pleasure ; like as the centu-
rion, in the holy history, did to St. Paul ; for the text saith, — ' Centime
apprehendi Paulum jussit, et se catenis eligari ; et tunc interrogabat,
quis fuisset, et quid fecisset.' But good judges and justices abhoj-
these courses."

SPEECH OF LORD CHATHAM. 227

Aeir constituents, and speak the sense of the continent. For
genius, for sagacity, for singular moderation, for solid wisdom,
manly spirit, sublime sentiments, and simplicity of language, —
for every thing respectable and honorable, the Congress of
Philadelphia shine unrivalled. This wise people speak out.
They do not hold the language of slaves. They tell you what
they mean. They do not ask you to repeal your laws as a favor,
but claim it as a right. They demand it. They tell you they
will not submit to them; and I tell you the acts must be re-
pealed. You cannot enforce them. The ministry are check-
mated. They have a move to make on the board, and cannot
move without ruin. A bare repeal, my Lords, will not satisfy
this enlightened and spirited people. What ! repeal a bit of
paper ! a piece of parchment ! That alone will not do. You
must go farther. You must go through with it. You must
declare that you have no right to tax them ; and then they will
trust you ; then they will have confidence in you.

" A noble Lord seemed to lay some blame upon General
Gage. I think the general has behaved with great prudence
and becoming caution. He has entrenched himself, -and
strengthened his fortifications. I do not see what he could
do more. His situation reminds me of a similar transaction
in the civil wars of France, when the great Conde on one
side, and Marshal Turenne on the other, lay, with large ar-
mies, many weeks very near each other. Turenne, conscious
of the terrible consequences of a victory to himself and to his
country, though the armies were several days in sight of each
other, never came to battle. On his return to the court of
France, the Queen asked him, — ' Why, Marshal, as you lay
several days in sight of your enemy, why did you not take
him'? ' The general shrewdly replied, — ' Should 1 have taken
him, I was afraid all Paris would have taken me.' My Lords,
there are three millions of whigs. Three millions of whigs,
with arms in their hands, are a very formidable body. It was
the whigs, my Lords, who set his Majesty's royal ancestors
upon the throne of England. I hope there are yet double the

228 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

number of wliigs in England that there are in America. I
hope the whigs of both countries will join and make common
cause. Ireland is with America to a man. The whigs in that
country ivill, and those of this country ought, to think the
American cause their own. They are allied to each other in
sentiment and interest ; united in one great principle of de-
fence and resistance. They ought therefore, and will, run to
embrace and support their brethren.

" The cause of ' ship-money ' was the cause of all the
whigs in England. ' You shall not take my money without
my consent,' is the doctrine and language of whigs. It is the
doctrine and language of whigs in America and whigs here.
It is the doctrine, in support of which, I do not know how
many names I could — I may call in this House. Among the
living I cannot say how many would join with me, and main-
tain these doctrines with their blood. But among the dead I
could raise an host innumerable. And, my Lords, at this day
there are very many sound, substantial, honest whigs, who
ought, and who will consider the American controversy as a
great common cause.

" Consistent with the preceding doctrines and with what I
have ever, and shall continue to maintain, I shall oppose Ameri-
ca, whenever I see her aiming at throwing off the navigation
act, and other regulatory acts of trade made bond fide for that
purpose, and wisely framed and calculated for reciprocation of
interest, and the general, extended welfare and security of the
whole empire. [Jfhat is the difference between these senti-
ments and those of Junius respecting the sovereignty of Great
Britain over the colonics^ I see none. .] It is suggested that
Independence is their design. I see no evidence of it. But
to come at a certain knowledge of their sentiments and de-
signs on this head, it would be proper first to do them justice,
before you Ireat them as aliens, rebels, and traitors." *

* Samuel Adams, who took the lead in Massachusetts, after the re-
tirement of James Otis, always contemplated Independence. He

SPEECH CF LORD CHATHAM. 229

" Deeply impressed, my Lords, with the importance of taking
some healing measures at this most alarming, distracted state
of our affairs, though bowed down with a cruel disease, I have
crawled to this house to give you my best experience and coun-
sel ; and my advice is, to beseech his Majesty, that, in order
to open the way toward an happy settlement of the dangerous
troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften
animosities, and preventing any sudden and fatal catastrophe at
Boston, it may please his Majesty to send immediate orders to
General Gage for removing his Majesty's forces from the town
of Boston. [Here his Lordship repeated the motion at length.]

" This is the best I can think of. It will convince America,
that you mean to try her cause in the spirit and by the laws of
freedom and fair inquiry, and not by codes of blood. How
can she now trust you, with the bayonet at her breast ? She
has all the reason in the world, now, to believe you mean her
death or bondage.

" Thus entering on the threshold of this business, I will
knock at your gates for justice without ceasing, unless invete-
rate infirmities stay my hand. My Lords, I pledge myself
never to leave this business ; I will pursue it to the end in
every shape. I will never fail in my attendance on it, at every
step and period of this great matter, unless nailed down to my
bed by the severity of disease. There is no time to be lost j
every moment is big with danger. Nay, while I am speaking,
the decisive blow may have been struck, and millions involved
in the consequences. The very first drop of blood will make a
wound that will not easily be skinned over. Years, perhaps
ages, may not heal it. It will be an " irritabile vulnus" a
wound of that rancorous, malignant, corroding, festering na-

fixed his dauntless eye and incorruptible heart on that great object,
and conducted accordingly with consummate wisdom and address ; and
he was amply rewarded by seeing his country in full possession of it,
and in seeing his kindred co-patriot, John Adams, received by George
the Third as our first ambassador, and the same gentleman elevated
afterwards to the Presidency of these United States.

230 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ttire, that, in all probability, it will mortify the whole body."
[This was not an oratorial exaggeration. Three months after
Lord Chatham uttered this solemn warning to King and Par-
liament, blood was drawn at Lexington, 12 miles from Boston,
and a few weeks afterwards, the sanguinary battle of Bunker
Hill was fought, within three miles of the table on which I am
now writing.*]

" Let us then, my Lords, set to this business in earnest,
not take it up by bits and scraps, as formerly, just as exigen-
cies pressed, without any regard to the general relations, con-
nexions, and dependencies. I could not, by any thing I have
said, my Lords, be thought to encourage America to proceed
beyond a right line. I reprobate all acts of violence by her
mobility ; but when her inherent constitutional rights are in-
vaded, — those rights which she has an equitable claim to
the full enjoyment of, by the fundamental laws of the Eng-
lish constitution, and engrafted thereon by the unalterable
laws of nature, then I own myself an American, and feel-
ing myself such, shall, to the verge of my life, vindicate
those rights against all men who strive to trample upon or
oppose them."

This speech amply evinced, that neither severe illness, in-
creased years, nor three years' retirement, had damped a spark
of his former fire. It blazed as ever in matchless eloquence.
Most men thought, Lord Chatham never shone in such over-
whelming force and splendor as on this great question, — the
union or division of a mighty empire, — peace or a civil war.
Dr. Franklin, who was in the House of Lords, said of it,

* Lord Mansfield used to observe, that nothing was more false than
modern history. We think so too, when we read such histories of the
American revolution and war as that by Stedman, and find him relied
on, as accurate, by writers of the character of Adolphus and Bisset,
who have mistakes enough without adopting his. Even the battle-
ground of Bunker hill is represented as a very steep hill ; whereas
every part of it can be ascended on a trot in a coach ; and a lady may
trot her horse over any part of it. Foreigners express surprise on
viewing the gentle slope.

SPEECH OF LORD CAMDEN. 231

" that he had seen, in the course of life, sometimes eloquence
without wisdom, and often wisdom without eloquence, but in
this instance he saw both united, and both, as he thought, in
the highest degree possible." * There certainly are in it indica-
tions of deep anxiety, beyond the studied rules of oratory, —
a fearful apprehension, an ominous something, appalling one
of *tfe most courageous Peers, that perhaps ever raised his
voice in England, — a prospect of things, of acts, and conse-
quences, which the mind of the monarch seemed insensible to.
" While I am now speaking," said the prophetic statesman,
" the blow may be struck, and millions involved in the conse-
quences." Less than an hundred clays after this, blood was
drawn in this vicinity, and the jewel, which rendered the Brit-
ish crown worth wearing, was stricken from it by a species of
suicide ! and the consequences have been greater than any
king, conqueror, or individual reformer ever effected.

Lord Camden, the intimate and confidential friend of Lord
Chatham, spoke next on the side of America. On this memo-
rable occasion, he was said to equal Chatham in every thing but
fire, pathos, and a certain inimitable dignity of manner. In
knowledge of law no man in the realm surpassed him. We
dwell with great satisfaction on his weighty discourse, for his
authority in the great American question, and because Junius
esteemed Lord Camden the only man worthy to complete the
task he himself began ; for to this luminary of the law, and firm
friend of the constitution, he " turns with pleasure from that
barren waste in which no salutary plant takes root, no verdure
quickens, to a character fertile in every great and good qualifi-
cation." To this apparent friend and legal oracle, the great
unknown says, " I call you, in the name of the English na-
tion, to stand forth in defence of the laws of your country, and
to exert, in the cause of truth and justice, those great abili-
ties with which you were entrusted for the benefit ol man-
kind." — " When the contest turns upon the interpretation of

* Letter to Lord Stanhope.

232 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

the laws, you cannot, without a formal surrender of all your
reputation, yield the post of honor even to Lord Chatham.
Considering the situation and abilities of Lord Mansfield, I do
not scruple to affirm, with the most solemn appeal to God for
my sincerity, that, in my judgment, he is the very worst and
most dangerous man in the kingdom."

But to return to the speech of Lord Camden. After speak-
ing of the nature of property, the right of taxation, and its in-
separability from representation, his Lordship said, " I will
not enter into the large field of collateral reasoning, applicable
to the abstruse distinctions touching the omnipotence of Parlia-
ment. The declaratory law sealed my mouth. But this I
will say, not only as a statesman, politician, and philosopher, but
as a common lawyer, you have no right to tax America.
The natural rights of man and the immutable laws of nature
are all with that people. I have searched the matter ; I re-
peat it, my Lords, you have no right to tax America*
Much stress is laid on the supreme legislative authority of
Great Britain, and so far as the doctrine is directed to its pro-
per object, I accede to it. But it is equally true, according
to all approved writers on government, that no mWft, agreeably
to the principles of natural and civil liberty, can be divested of
any part of his property without his consent. Every thing
has been staked upon this single position, that acts of Parlia-
ment must be obeyed. But this general, unconditional, unlim-
ited assertion, I am far from thinking applicable to every pos-
sible case that may arise in the turn of times. For my part I
conceive, that a power resulting from trust, arbitrarily exer-
cised, may be lawfully resisted, whether the power is lodged
in a collective body, or in a single person ; in the few or the
many ; however modified makes no difference. Whenever
the trust is wrested to the injury of the people ; whenever
oppression begins, all is unlawful and unjust ; and resistance
of course becomes lawful and right. But some Lords tell us,
and that seriously, that administration must reduce the Ameri-
cans to obedience and submission ; that is, you must mako

SPEECH OF LORD CAMDEN. 233

them absolute and infamous slaves, and then, — What? — we
will give them full liberty. Ah ! is this the nature of man ?
No ! no ! my Lords ! I would not trust myself, American as
I am in principle, in this situation. In that case, I do not
think that I should be for giving them liberty. No! if they
submitted to such unjust, such cruel, such degrading slavery, I
should think they were made for slaves, that their servility was
suited to their nature and genius. I should think they would
best serve this country as their slaves, that their servility would
be for the benefit of this country, and I should be for keep-
ing such Cappadocians in a state of servitude, such as was
suited to their constitution.

" Some Lords speak much against resistance to acts of Par-
liament. Kings, Lords, and Commons are fine sounding
names. But, my Lords, acts of Parliament have been resist-
ed in all ages. Kings, Lords, and Commons may become
tyrants as well as others. Tyranny in one or more is the
same. Somebody asked the great Mr. Selden * in what law-
book, in what records or archives of the state you might find
the law for resisting tyranny. ' I don't know,' said Selden,
* whether it would be worth your while to look deeply into
books upon this matter ; but I will tell you what is most cer-
tain, that it has always been the Custom of England, and the
Custom of England is the law of the land.'" Lord Camden
then referred to some writer who seemed to be present ;
doubtless Judge Blackstone, " who considers ' the Revolution '
as the only precedent ; and that the various circumstances,
events, and incidents, which may justify resistance cannot be
defined ; but the people at large will judge of their welfare
and happiness, and act accordingly. The same writer says,
whenever a case exactly similar, in all its parts and circum-
stances, to ' the revolution,' when a case shall run upon all
fours like that, then the law seems to be settled, that resistance
is lawful. I do not pretend," says his Lordship, " to quote his

* Called by Grotius the glory of England.
30

234 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

words ; I think his meaning is very much as I have stated it ;
but undoubtedly in many cases, in many respects, dissimilar,
but in equal degree tyrannical and oppressive, resistance may
be lawful ; and the people in all ages, countries, and climes,
have, at times, known these things; and they have, and they
will for ever act accordingly."

Junius hints at this custom, or law of the land, again and
again. There is no sudden thought, train of ideas, trait of
principle, chain of reasoning, nor any thing respecting Ameri-
ca or Britain, in the Letters of Junius, contradictory to, or in-
consistent with, the sentiments maintained by Lord Chatham
and by his intimate friend Lord Camden. They seem kin-
dred souls ; and I have long believed, that Earl Camden
knew the writer of Junius. Lord Camden said in the House
of Lords, " I accepted the great seals without conditions ; I
meant not therefore to be trammelled by his Majesty — I beg
pardon, — by his ministers ; but I have suffered myself to be
so too long. For some time I have beheld, with silent indig-
nation, the arbitrary measures of the minister. I have often
drooped and hung down my head in council, and disapproved,
by my looks, those steps which I knew my avowed opposition
could not prevent. I will do so no longer ; but openly and
boldly speak my sentiments." * — " The ministry, by their vio-
lent and tyrannical conduct, had alienated the minds of the
people from his Majesty's government, I had almost said, from
his person ; and in consequence a spirit of discontent had spread
into every corner of the kingdom, and was every day increas-
ing ; and if some methods are not devised to appease the
clamors so universally prevalent, I do not know but the peo-
ple, in despair, may become their own avengers, and take the
redress of grievances into their own hands." f

*Lord Eldon said, in the House of Peers, that "the author of
the Letters of Junius, if not himself a lawyer, must certainly have
written in concert with the ablest and best of lawyers."

f Adolphus's HiBtory of England. Vol. i. p. 371,

CHAPTER IX.

STRATAGEMS AND SUBTERFUGES OF POLITICIANS. JUNIUS S
CO-OPERATION WITH THE WHIG-PARTY. CHATHAM NEVER
COUNTENANCED AMERICAN INDEPENDENCY. THIS ALWAYS
MAINTAINED BY SAMUEL ADAMS IN MASSACHUSETTS, AND
BY STEPHEN HOPKINS IN RHODE ISLAND. SKETCH OF THE
CHARACTER OF SAMUEL ADAMS. INDEPENDENCY NEVER
LOST SIGHT OF IN MASSACHUSETTS. CONCEDED BY THE AU-
THOR CONFIRMED BY CHALMERS. MISCELLANEOUS OBSER-
VATIONS.

We have, in our two last Chapters, scrambled through a
rough and intricate passage, crowded with natural difficulties,
and some obstacles thrown purposely in the way of the travel-
ler, to confound his calculations, by turning a portion of plain
road into pathless confusion, where the mind, perplexed with
mazes, was at times bewildered, but not discouraged ; for
while earth confounded us, the sun in the firmament, source
of light and emblem of truth, was our guide and comfort.

Rigid moralists tell us, that a truly honest man dares no
more look an untruth than utter one. There is, be sure, a
lamentable difference between what ought to be and what is.
The closet philosopher and the secluded female may lay down
rules, and weep that so few are disposed to follow them. One
of them says, under the head of " Lies of Benevolence ," *
" My own opinion is, which I give with great humility, that
Truth is never to be violated, or withheld in order to deceive ;
but I know myself to be in such a painful minority on this
subject, that I almost doubt of the correctness of my own judg-
ment." It is a fact, that the sacred history, written for our
instruction, celebrates the names of very few persons of in-
violable truth and strict integrity. Modern history but echoes
the ancient on this sad subject. " The Icon Basilike" written

*Mrs. Opic.

236 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

by Doctor Gauden, who was made a bishop for it, was
palmed on the public as the pious production of King Charles
the First, and is believed to be from the pen of that monarch,
by numbers in England and a few in America, at this day.*

Our own countryman, Franklin, practised a refined stroke
of deception to benefit his country, by imposing a newspaper,
printed in his own house in France, for one printed in Bos-
ton, which completely deceived the British Legation at Paris.
The anecdote is worth recording here.

While the Doctor was soliciting the government of France
to form an alliance offensive and defensive with the new States
of America, the English ambassador near that court sent a
genuine Boston newspaper to the French minister, containing
an account of the defeat of the Americans with great loss ;
which statement was authentic, and it retarded the negotiation.
Franklin, who, every body knows, was originally a printer,
thereupon set to work in his own house, where he always kept
a complete printing apparatus, and directly printed a counter-
feit Boston newspaper, containing advertisements, anecdotes,
speculations, and a little of every thing common to our public
prints in that day, together with an official account of a victory
gained over the British troops, with loss of their cannon, &c.
This was sent to the French minister, and he sent it to Lord
Stormont, the British ambassador, who was confounded by the
sight of it. Franklin took special care to represent the genu-
ine American newspaper to be one of the New York forgeries,
not then uncommon at the British head quarters, and that
which came through him the only true one. Who thought the
worse of the American minister for the deception ? So far
from being considered, what it really was, a deliberate lie, it

* Lord Clarendon knew, negatively, that Charles the First did not
write the Icon Basilike, and, positively, that Gauden, Bishop of Win-
chester did write it. See his Letter to Gauden, March 13, 1661 ; yet
he favored the deception by his silence. Johnson quotes, in .his Dic-
tionary, King Charles as the author, and Dr. Webster is perpetuating
the deception.

STRATAGEMS OF POLITICIANS. 237

added to the renown of the philosopher and politician, proving
him to be a match for the diplomatists of the old world, and
qualified to negotiate with them. Even the modern Moses
acted deceptions in his military movements ; as at Cambridge,
when he drove General Howe out of Boston ; and deceived
Clinton before New York, precursory to his fatal blow against
Lord Cornwallis in Virginia.

After these examples, and many more that might be urged,
why should we lay any great stress upon the assertions of Ju-
nius, whenever they regard the vital secret of his personality ?
We mean not to justify falsification, or to countenance equivo-
cation or evasion, but only to show what has been practised by
eminent politicians in all countries and ages of the world, when
any great and very important public object was in hand.
Hitherto our own government has kept her white robes free
from every stain, as a government, whatever may have been
the wary and cunning conduct of individual agents and ser-
vants of it. We cannot, however, too often remind the reader
of the singularly perilous situation of Junius, cased up, face
and all, in complete armour. He says, in a private letter to
his printer, Woodfall, " I must be more cautious than ever. —
I am sure I should not survive discovery three days ; or if I
should, they would attaint me by bill." In a letter to Mr.
Wilkes, in September, 1771, he says, " I willingly accept as
much of your friendship as you can impart to a man whom you
will assuredly never know. Beside personal consideration, if
I were known, I could no longer be an useful servant to the
public." — " I speak from a recess which no human curiosity
can penetrate." He really presents a singular phenomenon in
history.

" One of the greatest difficulties, in fixing upon any one per-
son the character of Junius, is," says the Reminiscent Butler,
" to find one, who, like him, was, at once, well acquainted with
the circle of the court, with city conflicts, with the public of-
fices of government, and with the characters and habits of the
leaders of the parties and their runners." Whether our hy-

238 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

pothesis increases or diminishes this difficulty, we leave to the
future consideration of the reader* On any other, difficulties
multiply to an extent that is discouraging.

We can cite several passages to show, that to speak truth
concerning himself, by no means entered into the plan of Ju-
nius. He wrote a letter signed " Anti-Fox" in reply to a
pert one, written by the afterwards famous Charles Fox, when
a mere youth, in which our author says, " I know nothing of
Junius." Mr. Woodfall knew, that the assertion was untrue.
In the pages of Junius, we discover under the thin guise of
carelessness, and now and then a sly air of artlessness, a
studied artifice to conceal his rank and condition. When pre-
dicting that his book will be transmitted to posterity, he art-
fully changes his tone, and says, in gentle accents, " Mine, I
confess, are humble labors. I do not presume to instruct the
learned, but simply to inform the people." After telling us,
that he is a plain, unlettered man, he, in the same humble
strain, says, " 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 myself to the judgment of my
peers " ; as if he was one of the undistinguished commonalty.
But whenever Junius addresses personages of the highest rank,
and him with whom there is no competition, there is a tone of
equality, which Dean Swift was unable to assume and maintain
with credit. In Junius it fits as naturally as his skin ; in Swift
it resembles a dramatist, his elbows and his immovable fea-
tures appearing through the disguise. But Junius is always
dignified. In his public letters, we see him in his robes ; in
his privates ones, in his rich gown and slippers, and always the
nobleman. That he was a man past the noon of life, appears
from several circumstances. In a letter to Mr. Wilkes, in Au-
gust 21, 1771, which, though lengthy, is not a long one, he
concludes with saying, " I am heartily weary of writing, and
shall reserve another subject on which 1 mean to address you."
And in a note to the same gentleman, thanking him for his
offer of tickets to the Lord Mayor's ball, he says, " But alas !

STRATAGEMS OF JUNIUS. 239

my age and figure would do but little credit to my partner."
And in writing to him again in September 18, he thus expresses
his personal feelings ; " In pursuing such inquiries, I lie un-
der a singular disadvantage. Not venturing to consult those
who are qualified to inform me, I am forced to collect every
thing from books, or common conversation. The pains I took
with that paper upon privilege were greater than I can express
to you. Yet after I had blinded myself with pouring over
journals, debates, and parliamentary history, I was at last
obliged to hazard a bold assertion with an air of carelessness." *
Here we see an infirm, old man, spectacles and all. We, how-
ever, reiterate the observation, that, whenever Junius mentions
himself, or speaks of Lord Chatham, it is in a very cau-
tious and guarded manmer, or in a parenthesis \ and never
in a style to be construed into contempt. Thus, in a note to
Mr. Woodfall, he says, " By your affected silence, you en-
courage the idle opinion that I am the author of the ' Whig,'
though you very well know the contrary. I neither admire
the writer nor his Idol." This idol was Lord Chatham him-
self, whom the whig panegyrizes in very warm terms.

In Letter XIV. under the signature of Philo- Junius , he
says, " The Duke of Grafton has always some excellent rea-
son for deserting his friends, — the age and incapacity of Lord
Chatham, the debility of Lord Rockingham, or the infamy of
Mr. Wilkes." To which Mr. Heron subjoins this note. —
" Lord Chatham, having, from early life, suffered much by
the gout, was, at this time, exceedingly afflicted with it. But
he had often opportunities to show, after this period, that the
vigor of his mind remained unconquered by the infirmities of
his body. To the last, he was able to shake the Senate, even
with more energetic and impressive eloquence, than in the
first pride and ambition of his youth."

*We, on this side of the Atlantic, can enter into his feelings in this
respect. We may make ridiculous mistakes in trifling facts, which a
Londoner might answer in a minute.

240 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

We may remark, amongst other things, in this miscellaneous
chapter, that Lord Chatham, in a speech in Parliament in
1770, makes bitter and fretful complaints of the hypocritical
conduct of the Duke of Grafton, during his illness at Bath and
Hampstead, and insinuates, more than once, that the Duke had
dealt treacherously with him. Now, it is worthy of remark,
that Junius, in the paragraph immediately following the strange
eulogy on Lord Chatham already mentioned, says, " My de-
testation of the Duke of Grafton is not founded upon his
treachery to any individual, though I am willing enough to
suppose, that, in public affairs, it would be impossible to de-
sert or betray Lord Chatham, without doing an essential injury
to the country. My abhorrence to the Duke arises from an
intimate knowledge of his character, and from a thorough con-
viction, that his baseness has been the cause of greater mischief
to England, than even the unfortunate ambition of Lord
Bute." How happened it, that Junius never speaks of Lord
Bute in that bitter style of abhorrence, which he utters to-
wards Grafton, Bedford, Barrington, Mansfield, and some oth-
er noblemen ? * In the same very able letter (LIV.) he says,
alluding to the politics of the city of London, " It is unneces-
sary to bind Lord Chatham by the written formality of an en-
gagement [as some in the city proposed.] 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 determine
against the integrity of Lord Rockingham or his friends," —
amongst whom stood conspicuously Lord Chatham.

On this passage Mr. Heron remarks, that " Junius here
evaded any decision between the principles of the two subdi-
visions of the whig-party. He was afraid to stir up any dis-
cussion, which might tend to set them, unseasonably, at vari-

* It is pretty evident that Lord Chatham, as well as Junius, believed
that the ruling Daemon, in the interior, secret cabinet, was a female.

JUNIUS' CO-OPERATION WITH THE WHIGS. 241

ance. The grand distinction between them, as to principle,
respected the reform of Parliament. The Newcastle and
Rockingham whigs were disposed to preserve septennial Par-
liaments ; while the followers of Pitt and the Grenvilles were
half inclined to gratify the popular cry for the restoration of
triennial elections. We cannot enough admire the address
with which Junius praises and justifies both, and strives to
confirm their mutual reconciliation, yet without making him-
self responsible for the principles and conduct of either."

To these apt remarks we may add, what is worth consider-
ation, the delicate situation of Lord Chatham, as it regarded
his brother-in-law, Lord Temple, and the Marquis of Rock-
ingham, at that time. Lord Chatham, naturally overbearing
and peremptory, had fallen out with both these distinguished
members of the great whig-party. It had been a division, or
rather distinction, without absolute discord, until a personal
coolness and estrangement took place between the two broth-
ers, on account of some ministerial dispositions misunderstood.
By the intervention of common friends, a reconciliation was at
length brought about with both, adding strength to their former
amity. This unhappy schism, and the recently restored har-
mony, will account, on our hypothesis, for the singular cast of
the Fifty-fourth Letter of Junius, which, while it bears strong
marks of wonderful povvers of mind, bears not a few traits of
embarrassment, and seems employed as a vehicle to convey
assistance in bolstering up, in the view of the public, the
invalid Lord Chatham, who was in that cautious and delicate
state which always follows the re-union of broken friend-
ship.

Beside the cautious phraseology, and sly air of affected care-
lessness, or, if you please, studied artlessness, practised by Juni-
us, whenever he mentions Lord Chatham, it is a circumstance
equally remarkable, that his Lordship has never once uttered
the name of Junius, in any speech that has come down to us,
even while earnestly discussing the subject of the prosecution
of Woodfall for publishing his Letter to the King. It is al-

242 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ways Woodfall, and never Junius. Among peculiarities, how
came it to pass that a character so prominent, so very active,
efficient, and respectable, as Richard Grenville, Lord Temple,
is never once named in the Letters of Junius ? Again, how
came it, that Lord Chatham, clarum et venerabile nomen, the
object of Junius's veneration, was never called on by him to
aid the cause in which he risked his life, and more than life ?

Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and Henry Fox, Lord Holland,
were school-fellows. The latter was a great favorite of George
the Second, who wished Chatham to admit him into his admin-
istration, but the minister refused the request of his sovereign
peremptorily ; yet was there a steady personal friendship be-
tween those two noblemen. Lord Holland was the much ap-
proved paymaster-general, during the whole of Mr. Pitt's
triumphant administration ; a post of great trust, in which in-
tegrity was a sine qua non, and where dishonor could not re-
main while that minister was at the helm.

The conduct of Lord Chatham towards Lord Holland
is entitled to particular notice, inasmuch as the like partiality
is discoverable in Junius towards that nobleman. The
younger Woodfall remarks, that " Junius appears to have uni-
formly entertained a good opinion of, or, at least, a partiality
for Lord Holland." The late celebrated Charles Fox, son
of the nobleman just mentioned, when young and forward, had
the hardihood to attack Junius, who condescended to reply to
him, under the signature of Anti-Fox, bearing traits of authen-
ticity ; and, after saying that " he knew nothing of Junius " !
adds, " I see plainly, that he designedly spared Lord Holland
and his family. Whether Junius should be wantonly pro-
voked, are questions worthy the Black Boy's * consideration."
Now Pitt and the father of Charles were friends from boy-
hood. Fox was the elder by three years, and very much
attached to Mr. Pitt through life ; yet they seldom drew to-

* Charles Fox was of so dark a complexion, that he looked more like -
a Portuguese Jew than a Christian.

JUNIUS' CO-OPERATION WITH THE WHIGS. 243

gether in politics, whether in the Commons or House of Peers.
Nevertheless they had a personal regard for each other. Fox
was a quick, warm-tempered man, yet his coolness and pa-
tience, under the tart remarks of Pitt, were noticed as far
back as the year 1755. Mr. Fox, however, appeared always
to delight in praising the oratorial powers of his old friend and
political opponent ; while he, in return, speaks handsomely of
his school-mate ; and when they did wrangle, it was more
like the querimoniousness of brothers than real enmity. They
were very different men in constitution and habits. The
bond of attachment between friends in both sexes is not al-
ways similarity of disposition ; but often the reverse. Mr.
Fox was a strong-fibred, hardy, healthy man, frank, open,
and agreeable ; but impetuous in his temper, social, industrious
in business, companionable, fond of drinking and gaming,
with a strong bias to dissipation, and totally divested of that
repellent atmosphere which surrounded the lofty Mr. Pitt.
This same Lord Holland was a powerful speaker, and a good
and candid judge of oratory in others ; but in the graces of
elocution, in imagination, in fluency, in fire and pathos, greatly
inferior to his friend Lord Chatham. Amid failings like these,
which he transmitted to his favorite son, he was respected
by all, as a man of honor, generosity, spirit, and veracity ;
hence we wonder not that Junius felt for him a friendly
solicitude, when accused, by some of the city-patriots, of mal-
versation in his office, as paymaster of the land forces.
Do these facts strengthen or weaken our hypothesis ?

In a sharp altercation between the two friends in the House
of Commons, Mr. Pitt took pains to remove every idea of
personality to the other ; while Mr. Fox uttered several short
and sullen compliments indicative of his veneration for the
talents and open and manly conduct of Mr. Pitt, who, notwith-
standing all that has been said, steadily rejected the overtures
of Mr. Fox to be united with him in a proposed new adminis-
tration. We think we could, with the help of Lord Chester-
field, explain this, were it to our purpose here ; but we must

244 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

not stray too far from our road, even in a chapter professed!)'
miscellaneous. We shall only remark, that Lord Bute, who
was not quite so bad a man as many in America have supposed,
but who had more cunning than wisdom, courted the confi-
dential friendship of the newly created Lord Holland, in or-
der to make a complete breach between him and the noble-
man whom Bute most dreaded. We would also remark, that
it appears that Lord Chatham had the like feelings towards
Lord Holland as towards his brother-in-law, George Grenville,
— strong personal regard without political unity.

A sensible commentator on Junius * observes, that all
whom Lord Bute could consult, whether whigs or tories,
agreed in one common desire to see Pitt and his family
connexions, the Grenvilles, humbled and driven from of-
fice before they should be able to fortify themselves too
strongly to be removed. The same commentator further re-
marks, that " the Grenvilles, the Earl of Chatham, the Marquis
of Rockingham, and their respective adherents, supposed the
business of government could not go on, unless the King should
implicitly resign the whole ministerial powers into their hands ;
and that they were preparing, by every means, to secure, be-
yond the possibility of disappointment, the grand object of
their expectations ; and that, not unconscious of the strength
of public opinion, they used every artifice to make it raise
a voice continually louder and louder in their favor ; and that
Junius, privy to their secrets, though they might not be con-
scious of Ais,-j- was willing to promote, in an exertion bold-
er and of greater effort, than any he had hitherto made, that
success of his party, of which he was, perhaps, to share the
spoils ; that, with this view, he wrote his Letter to the King,

* Mr. Heron.

f " There did, and perhaps there still does exist, a private letter from
Junius to Mr. Grenville, professing political attachment, and at the
same time discouraging all attempts to pluck off his mask." — Edin.
Revieivfor June, 1826.

CHATHAM OPPOSED TO AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 245

at a critical time, when they hoped to force themselves, in a
body, into administration, by a consentaneous effort."

Although Lord Chatham was a great friend to the colonies,
he never countenanced their independency, but uniformly
maintained the supremacy of Parliament over them, yet denying
its right to tax them without their consent ; and he opposed,
with all his powers, the rash attempt of George the Third to
try the question with America by force of arms. As to our
aiming at independency, he said he saw no evidence of it.
Dr. Franklin declared, that he never heard the wish expressed
by any order of men, in any part of America, nor under any
circumstances, riotous or sober, from the pulpit to the bar-
room of a country tavern. There are no traces of it in the
writings or speeches of James Otis, nor a syllable to that effect
in the Letters of Washington, prior to July, 1776. Neverthe-
less, the idea, the wish, the intention and principle of it was
cherished in JVeiv England from the time .of the first Gover-
nor Winthrop, to Governor Samuel Adams. Yes, the heroic
passion of independence from Britain, from Europe, grew
with our growth, and strengthened with our strength ; and at
last it was warmly advocated by Dr. Franklin in a celebrated
publication entitled Common Sense, the joint work of that
great philosopher and Thomas Paine. Franklin laid the foun-
dation of the structure and put up the frame-work, and Paine
finished it in his strong and peculiar manner. My authority
for saying this is my kinsman, Dr. Fothergill, in whose
house I resided three years, and between whom and Franklin
long subsisted the intimacy of congenial minds respecting
American and British politics. Franklin's agency in that cele-
brated pamphlet is glanced at in his Memoirs.

With Franklin, next in affection, after America, was Eng-
land ; with Fothergill, next to England, were the colonies.
They both wished that tin. 1 British colors, the emblem of sove-
reignty, should be worn by America. With both, their union
was a darling object. Fothergill went so far as to express in
print a wish, that the British government would promote schol-

246 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

arships for Americans in their universities ; and that they
would give posts and benefits in this country to such Ameri-
cans as had studied in England preferably to others, and
that the government should permit such youths to pass to
Europe in the king's ships gratis. Dr. Fothergill thought that
this would unite more firmly characters of the first order, by
their mixing with the British at the universities, and diffusing
thence a spirit of inquiry after America, of which country the
English were strangely ignorant, and thus cement friendships on
both sides ; and that this would be a more lasting benefit to
each country, than all the ships and armies that could be sent
across the Atlantic. Few if any Englishmen was better ac-
quainted with the American colonies than Dr. Fothergill. He
communicated his ideas, occasionally, through the London
newspapers, in essays under various signatures, many of which
I transcribed for the press. As early as 1765, when he saw
measures, which appeared to him ill-timed and impolitic, he pub-
lished a pamphlet of thirty-five pages, entitled, " Considerations
relative to the JVo?ih American Colonies," which evinces his
affection for both countries.

He was family-physician to most of the old nobility, as well
as many of the new, and was occasionally called into consultation
at the bed-side of the highest in rank and station ; by which he
had an opportunity of knowing the sentiments of the prime, as
well as the secondary movers of the political machine, — its
wheels as well as its leaden weights. I well remember Lord
Shelburne calling at Dr. Fothergill's, and leaving a copy of
" Common Sense," at its very first appearance in London.
For several days the good Doctor appeared taciturn and ab-
stracted. Within a week perhaps, he gave me the pamphlet
to read, charging me to let no one see it. I read it as a
Spaniard or Portuguese would read an interdicted book in the
vicinity of the inquisition. It gave to my thoughts a new di-
rection, and occupied my mind day and night. It raised in
me a new train of prospective ideas, — glorious ones, be sure,
yet dreadful, — " the battle of the warrior, with confused

SAMUEL ADAMS AND STEPHEN HOPKINS. 247

noise, and garments rolled in blood ! '' Franklin and Fothergill
corresponded now and then, after the former became our minis-
ter at the court of France. The latter told me that he saw the
sotd of Franklin in every page of that forceable pamphlet.
I was the bearer of a long letter, which Dr. Fothergill deliver-
ed to me open, for Dr. Franklin in Paris, in the summer of
1780, being a plan of reconciliation and general pacification,
resembling, in some respects, " the Holy Alliance.'''' j- After
reading it, Dr. Franklin said to me, " Your kinsman, and my
most excellent friend, has a better opinion of the world than I
have. He has seen only the best side of it. I have seen both.
He judges men by his own good heart and candid mind."

But to return to the subject of the Independence of the Colo-
nies. The idea, nay die principle of it, was more or less
cherished from the beginning of the settlement of Massachu-
setts, especially in Boston ; and particularly by Samuel Ad-
ams, whose name and character I revere as the great file-
leader of our revolution. Stephen Hopkins, for many years
governor of the colony of Rhode Island, the oldest man in our
first Congress, and the senior signer of the Declaration of In-
dependence in July, 1776, repeatedly uttered that language to
confidential friends. He was in fact the Samuel Mams of Rhode
Island. It is a remarkable circumstance, that the character,
standing, and agency of Samuel Adams, are better known out
of New England, than in his native Boston ; for the grave has
closed over nearly every one of his fellow-laborers, and left
a generation that knew him not.

Mr. Adolphus speaks of him, in his History of England,
thus. " Samuel Adams, a distinguished leader of the Ameri-
can councils, noted for subtlety, perseverance, and inflexibility,
boasted in all companies [he was no boaster, but a polite gen-
tleman of modest carriage], that he had toiled twenty years to
accomplish the measure [independency]. During that time,

f It was a college of crowned heads to keep the peace of the world,
by restraining those passions whence come wars and fightings.

248 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

he had carried his art and industry so far, as to search after
every rising genius in the New England seminaries, employed
his utmost abilities to fix in their minds the principles of Ameri-
can independency, and now triumphed in his success." *

The Rev. Dr. William Gordon, another Englishman, who
resided a number of years near Boston as a parish minister,
says, " that Samuel Adams became a member of the legisla-
ture in September, 1765 ; that he was zealously attached to
the rights of Massachusetts in particular, and the colonies in
general, and but little to his own personal interest ; that he
was well qualified to second Mr. Otis, and learned in time to
serve his own political views by the influence of the other ;
that he was soon noticed by the House, chosen and continued
their clerk from year to year, by which means he had the cus-
tody of their papers ; and of these he knew how to make an
advantage for political purposes. He was frequently upon im-
portant committees, and acquired great ascendency by discov-
ering a readiness to acquiesce in the proposals and amend-
ments of others, while the end aimed at by them did not even-
tually frustrate his leading designs. He showed a pliableness
and complaisance in these smaller matters which enabled him,
in the issue, to carry those of much greater consequence ;
and . there were," says the historian, " many favorite points,
which the ' sons of liberty,' in Massachusetts meant to carry,
even though the stamp-act should be repealed." j-

President Jefferson, in a letter to Samuel Adams's grand-
son, says of him, " He was truly a great man, wise in council,
fertile in resources, immoveable in his purposes, and had, I
think, a greater share than any other member [of Congress],
in advising and directing our measures in the northern war.
As a speaker, he could not be compared with his living col-
league and namesake, J whose deep conceptions, nervous style,
and undaunted firmness, made him truly our bulwark in de-

* Vol. ii. p. 363. f Letter IV. p. 152. New York edition. 1789.
J John Adams.

SAMUEL ADAMS AND STEPHEN HOPKINS. 249

bate. But Samuel Adams, although not of fluent elocution,
was so rigorously logical, so clear in views, abundant in sense,
and master always of his subject, that he commanded the
most profound attention whenever he rose in an assembly,
where the froth of declamation was heard with the most sove-
reign contempt."

The following is a letter from Mr. Jefferson to the author,
dated Monticello, January 31, 1819.

" Dear Sir, — Your letter of the 15th was received on the
27th, and I am glad to find the name and character of Samuel
Adams coming forward, and in so good hands as I suppose
them to be. I was the youngest man but one in the old
Congress, and he the oldest but one, as I believe. His only
senior, I suppose, was Stephen Hopkins, of and by whom the
honorable mention made in your letter was richly merited.

" Although my high reverence for Samuel Adams was re-
turned by habitual notices from him, which highly flattered me,
yet the disparity of age prevented intimate and confidential
communications. I always considered him, more than any
other member, the fountain of our important measures; and
although he was neither an eloquent nor easy speaker, what-
ever he said was sound, and commanded the profound atten-
tion of the House.

" In the discussions on the floor of Congress, he reposed
himself on our main pillar in debate, Mr. John Adams. These
two gentlemen were verily a host in our councils. Compari-
sons with their associates, Northern or Southern, would an-
swer no profitable purpose ; but they would suffer by com-
parison with none. I salute you with perfect esteem and respect.

Th. Jefferson.
Dr. Waterhouse, Cambridge."

At the close of a very interesting letter written to me by the

first President Adams, January 30, 1818, he says, " If ever

human beings had a right to say

Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores ;

and
Sic V03 non vobis mellificatis, apes ;

250 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

they were James Otis and Samuel Adams. And to them
ought statues to be erected, and not to John."

If ever'men labored for others, and not for themselves, they
were those early patriots ; and should Boston ever honor her-
self by erecting a monument to Samuel Adams, sic vos non
vobis should be inscribed on it.

Whatever construction may be put on it, I am led, in honor
of truth, to concede, that the leading men in the colonies of
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and, I believe, Connecticut,
contemplated independency from the first settlement of the
country ; and that Samuel Adams was the first man who em-
bodied that noble sentiment, and, with caution and great ad-
dress, diffused that doctrine from North to South, until it be-
came, in the year seventy-six, the vital principle in our con-
stitution.

The question, With whom, or where commenced the revolu-
tion ? is as difficult as that of the first inventors of a thousand
good things. President Jefferson in a letter to me, dated March
3, 1818, says, " I suppose it would be difficult to trace our revo-
lution to its first embryo. We do not know how long it
was hatching in the British cabinet, before they ventured to
make the first of the experiments which were to develope it in
the end, and to produce complete parliamentary supremacy.
Those you mention in Massachusetts, as preceding the stamp-
act, might be the first visible symptoms of that design. The
proposition of that act, in 1764, was the first here. Your op-
position, therefore, preceded ours, as occasion was sooner
given there than here ; and the truth, I suppose, is, that the
opposition, in every colony, began whenever the encroachment
was presented to it. This question of priority is as the in-
quiry would be, who first of the three hundred Spartans offer-
ed his name to Leonidas. I shall be happy to see justice done
to the merits of all, by the unexceptionable umpire of dates
and facts, and especially from the pen which is proposed to be
employed in it."

SAMUEL ADAMS. 251

Samuel Adams was graduated at the university of Cam-
bridge in the year 1740, when he discussed the following the-
sis, " Whether it be lawful to resist the Supreme Magistrate,
if the Commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved ? " He
maintained the affirmative, which was remarkable for that time
and place ; for it was in presence of the King's Governor and
his Council, in the reign of George the Second, while Sir
Robert Walpole was prime minister, and when' these colonies
had nothing to complain of from Britain, the aged monarch be-
ing popular, and we Americans very loyal. Then England
was called our " home" and we almost adored King, Lords,
and Commons, and hated the very name of a Frenchman and
Spaniard, and abhorred, alike, the Pope, the Devil, and an
English Bishop.

When Samuel Adams attained his first degree in the
arts at Cambridge, John Adams was five years old, and Jo-
siah Quincy and Joseph Warren yet unborn. James Otis was
three years after Samuel Adams in the catalogue of graduates,
and Mr. Quincy twenty-three years after him. John Adams
was graduated in 1755, which was fifteen years after the gradu-
ation of Samuel. Samuel Adams was distinguished at the
university for a serious and retired cast of mind. He meant to
devote himself to the gospel ministry, yet he paid great attention
to Greek and Roman history. Livy and Tacitus were his fa-
vorite authors ; but Divinity was the profession he meant to
live and die by. What particularly diverted him from it, we
are unable to say ; probably the terrible and gloomy part of
the system of Calvin then in vogue, a system founded on Scrip-
ture misunderstood.

The year Samuel Adams entered the university was the
same in which Pitt, Earl of Chatham, entered the British
Parliament, so that Mr. Adams must have seen the whole of
that great statesman's career, from 1738 to 1778, when that
nobleman died. During Pitt's administration, the Parliament
was unanimous in supporting his measures. From 1757 to
1760, the British arms were successful in every quarter of the

252 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

globe ; the royal marine of France was reduced to ten ships
of the line and a few frigates, while England was at the very
pinnacle of her power and glory, with thirteen growing, happy,
and grateful American colonies. But this enviable state did
not last long. In 1760 King George the Second suddenly
died, and his grandson reigned in his stead. Then came in
amongst us political sin and oppression, and their shadow, re-
venge ; then orders were sent from " home," enabling the
King's collectors to command all sheriffs and constables to attend
and aid them in breaking open houses, stores, shops, cellars, ships,
bales, trunks, &,c. &c. to search for goods, which had escaped
paying certain taxes or duties, imposed by acts of Parliament,
procured through the influence of certain royal governors and
certain West India planters. Dreading the resistance of the
Bostonians, the governor made the experiment first in Salem.
But the Supreme Court, then sitting in that old, phlegmatic
town, ordered that the " great question " of the legality of
those writs of assistance should be argued in Boston. It was
then, that James Otis burst forth, the blazing champion of the
rights of the colonies. Knowing he had the law on his side,
he gave a loose rein to his oratorial powers. Its coruscations
and impetuosity dazzled and bore down the mildness of Thach-
er and the solemnity of Gridley. Such oratory was new to
John Adams, and made a very strong impression on his young
mind, and induced him to estimate James Otis fully equal to his
value. He was, it is true, a very daring, disinterested, active,
and valuable partisan ; yet was he under the control of cooler
heads than his own. Some very important papers of that day
(1768) were sketched by Mr. Otis, and then submitted to the
revision and correction of Samuel Adams; and this was a con-
stant practice of that fiery orator. In fact there were few,
if any, very important papers, published between 1764 and
1769, in Boston, that were not revised by the cool and solid
judgment of the New England Phocion. Upon several com-
munications sent to printers by Mr. Josiah Quincy, was written,
" Let Samuel Adams, Esq. correct the press." It cannot be

SAMUEL ADAMS. 253

supposed, that this meant literary and verbal criticism, seeing-
Adams was the Gamaliel of Warren and Quincy. Otis was a
learned lawyer, and, though generally charged plus with en-
thusiasm, was the very character those trying times re-
quired (he dared to say more in public than any other man) ;
times, which also required the cooler heads of Samuel Adams,
Joseph Hawley, and James Bowdoin, in Massachusetts, and of
John Dickinson in Pennsylvania, and Stephen Hopkins in
Rhode Island.

"Mr. Samuel Adams," says the historian Gordon, "long since
said, in small, confidential companies, ' This country shall be in-
dependent, and we will be satisfied with nothing short of it.' " *

* An anecdote may show Mr. Adams's address and management in
a popular assembly or " Town-meeting,' 1 '' when one portion of their
business was an association not to import goods from Britain into Bos-
ton, until certain grievances were redressed.

A Mr. M c , a Scotchman and large importer, refused to join

the association. The Scotch, whatever they were in former reigns, were
remarkable for their loyalty to George the Third, and are generally
pretty stubborn where their interest is concerned. It was reported to

a large town-meeting, convened in Fanueil Hall, that Mr. M c

still refused to put his name to the non-importation agreement. Some
were wroth on the occasion, which Mr. Samuel Adams by no means
encouraged, for the suaviter in modo was a trait in his energetic char-
acter. The committee was directed to call on the recusant again ;
they returned with the same answer ; when Mr. Adams rose up and
moved, that the meeting (about two thousand persons) should re-
solve itself into a committee of the whole house, and wait upon Mr.

M c , at the close of the meeting, to urge his compliance with

the general wish ; which being agreed without a dissenting voice, they
proceeded to transact the business before them, f Mr. Adams knew,
that M c had friends in the meeting, some of whom im-
mediately slipped away to inform him, that the ivhole body would, as a
committee, wait upon him at the close of the meeting. The conse-
quence was, as Mr. Adams expected. In the midst of their delibera-
tions on other subjeets, in pushes Mr. M c , all in a foam, and

bowing to the chairman and to Mr. Adams, told them that he was

•f- After iliis Samuel ami John Adams opposed, in Congress, the non importation schotne, lost
the country should bo exhausted ot'ceitaiu necessary articles when they came to fight.

254 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

When the noted Mr. Galloway and a few of his ignorant
adherents were for entering their protest in Congress against an
open rupture with Britain, Samuel Adams, rising slowly from his
seat, said, " I should advise persisting in our struggle for lib-
erty, though it were revealed from Heaven, that nine hundred
and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one freeman of a
thousand survive, and retain his liberty. That one freeman
must possess more virtue and enjoy more happiness, than a
thousand slaves : let him propagate his like, and transmit to
them what he had so nobly preserved." But Mr. James Otis
maintained, " that we must and ought to yield obedience to
an act of Parliament, though erroneous, till repealed ; that the
power of Parliament was uncontrolable but by themselves."
Samuel and John Adams spoke a different language.*

Chalmers, who is respectable authority, strengthens our as-
sertions of an undeviating spirit of independency which ac-

ready and willing to put his name to the non-importation agreement ;
after which Samuel Adams pointed to a seat near him, with a polite,
condescending bow of protection in the presence of the people, which
quieted the alarm of the discreet Scotchman, who was struck with
dread at the idea of two thousand people presenting themselves before
his dwelling, and wished to avoid the comminatory honor. The mob,
which destroyed Lord Mansfield's house and set London on fire in
twenty places, was not composed of any of those persons who were
collected, in the day-time, in St. George's Fields, and who marched to
the Parliament house, led by the crazy Lord George Gordon, who had
no hand in the riots ; yet was he tihe remote cause of them.

Thus did Samuel Adams, poor as Phocion, devote a large portion
of his life to the great cause of America, both as a contriver and exe-
cutor, by steady and unwearied steps that never faltered. No mon-
arch or state could, by rewards and honors, hire a man to neglect his
own domestic affairs, and devote every hour of his life to offices of all
kinds, as did this renowned patriot ; who, but for the death of his
only son (who left a few thousand dollars) must have been buried at
the public expense.

* John Adams, speaking in warm commendation of Jefferson, says,
" Though a silent member, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and de-
cisive upon committees, — not even Samuel Adams tvas more so, —
that he soon seized my heart."

TESTIMONY OF CHALMERS. 255

tuated the first settlers of New England. This gentleman
wrote his " Political Annals of the United Colonies," under
the influence, and probably by direction of the British govern-
ment, to prove the crying sin, that Massachusetts always aimed
at independence. The work was written during our contro-
versy with England. The author was a secretary in the colo-
nial department, and had, as far as documents go, the best
means of information. He says, Book I. ch. vi. " Several
persons of considerable consequence in the nation, who had
adopted the principles of the Puritans, and who wished to en-
joy their own mode of worship, formed the resolution of emi-
grating to Massachusetts. But they felt themselves inferior
neither to the governor nor assistants of the company. They
saw and dreaded the inconvenience of being governed by laws
made for them without their consent ; and it appeared more
rational to them, that the colony should be ruled by those who
made it the place of their residence, than by men dwelling at
the distance of three thousand miles, over whom they had
no control. At the same time, therefore, that they proposed
to transport themselves, their families, and their estates to that
country, they insisted that the charter should be transmitted
with them, and that the corporate powers which were con-
ferred by it, should be executed, in future, in New Eng-
land." *

* It gives us pleasure to cite from any British work marked with the
like good sense, ability, and candor, as that by George Chalmers, Esq.,
after reading such accounts of our military affairs and measures, as are
given by Stedman, Bisset, and Adolphus. Such provoking misrepresenta-
tions tend, more than any thing else, to perpetuate animosities- The
former speaks of the Americans scalping some of the British prisoners
at Lexington ! By their accounts the British had only to march up to the
Americans, and certain victory was the consequence ; whereas all Bos-
ton, men and women, saw the British soldiers fly twice before an infe-
rior number of raw militia at Bunker Hill, and on several other occasions.
Three years afterwards, Lord George Germaine actually sent a vast
number of live sheep and hogs to feed their conquering army, while
there were millions of those brutes belonging to American farmers ;
which the owners of them were able to protect against both British

256 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

Beside civil liberty, our ancestors came with a determi-
nation to enjoy religious freedom, and they obtained it.
" They left their native land," says Junius to the King,
" in search of freedom, and found it in a desert." To escape
from the tyranny of the English hierarchy was a powerful mo-
tive with the first emigrants. Archbishop Laud kept a jealous
eye over New England. Charles the Second and Massachusetts,
according to Chalmers, mutually hated antl contemned and
feared each other, because the one suspected its principles of
attachment, and the other dreaded an invasion of its privileges.
The General Court very early resolved, " That the patent or
charter (under God) was the first and main foundation of the
civil polity of Massachusetts ; that the governor and company
are, by the patent, a body politic, which is vested with power
to make freemen ; that they have authority to choose a gover-
nor, deputy-governor, assistants, and select representatives ;
that this government has ability to set up all kinds of offices ;
that the governor, deputy-governor, assistants, and select depu-
ties have full jurisdiction, both legislative and executive, for the
government of the people here, without appeals (excepting
laws repugnant to the laws of England) ; that this company is
privileged to defend itself against all who shall attempt its an-
noyance ; that any imposition, prejudicial to the country, con-
trary to any of its just ordinances (not repugnant to the laws of
England), is an infringement of its rights." * Yet our resist-
ance to British encroachments, in later times, has been stigma-
tized by the odious name of rebellion I Our ancestors quitted
Old England with a determination to enjoy self-government in
the New ; and we always acted up to this heroic resolution ;
for as early as 1652 a mint was erected in Boston, when the
government exercised that prerogative of sovereignty, coining
money, f After the death of Oliver Crommell, whom our fore-

and German marauders. Such facts must ever put to shame boastful
declamation, and that gasconade which marks and mars too many of
the British writers.
* Chalmers, Book I. p. 243. f Bearing the stamp of a pine tree.

JOHN HANCOCK. 257

fathers feared and flattered, Massachusetts refused to acknowl-
edge the authority of his son Richard any more than that of
the Parliament, or Protector, because all submission, says
Chalmers, would have been inconsistent with her indepen-
dence.

Lord Chatham and Camden doubtless knew all these things,
while Lord North and his short-sighted master were as igno-
rant of them as Lord Bute himself.

One of the most fortunate steps of the sagacious Samuel
Adams was his yoking in with him the very rich and accom-
plished John Hancock, Esq. The cause of self-govern-
ment is under great obligations to both. . One gave to it his
great mind, and the other his fortune ; one obtained contempo-
rary celebrity, the other, like Napoleon, trusted posterity.

How rarely do we find two men alike ! Minds differ as
much as countenances, yet that difference impedes not union.
Adams and Hancock were very much unlike each other. To-
gether they formed that potent weapon, the arrow, — the ef-
ficient steel and the feather. Like Adams, Mr. Hancock was
a gentleman of an university education and cultivated taste ; he
was a remarkably good speaker, and resembled an English no-
bleman in dress, manners, style of living, and equipage, and was
grievously tormented with gout. I have thought that the char-
acter of Mr. Hancock was a compound of that of the Duke of
Newcastle and the Duke of Grafton, both of whom bustled at
the court of London in the early part of the reign of George the
Third ; while that of Mr. Adams could not be so readily paral-
leled. It partook of our conception of Phocion among the
Greeks, and of Cato among the Romans. With a counte-
nance expressive of benevolence and good humor was united
the inflexible virtue of a Regulus, dignified by a perfect com-
mand of temper.

That my venerated friend, John Adams, was as staunch
in his principles of independency as Samuel, no one can
doubt, who knows the man and his whole history ; but being
a professional man, he had neither the time nor opportunity

258 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

of manifesting them so early, by a year or two, as his name-
sake.* The clear and cogent paragraphs and essays of Samuel
appeared, like those of Junius, in newspapers, prompt and to
the purpose aimed at; whereas those of John were more labor-
ed works, rich in authorities, profound in conception, strong in
expression, and never confuted. Samuel Adams absolutely
wielded that powerful engine, a free press, with the strong arm
of a giant. But that was not all ; he stood at the very ave-
nue of public opinion as it regarded the cause of freedom or
whiggism. James Otis was distinguished for the fire of genius,
a blaze of eloquence, and a daring manner of expressing his bril-
liant ideas ; yet he submitted his essays invariably to the men-
tal strainer of the great patriot, as did other less distinguished
ones. One day John and Samuel Adams were walking in the
Boston Mall, and when they came opposite the stately man-
sion of Mr. Hancock, the latter turning to the former, said,
with emphasis, " I have done a very good thing for our cause
in the course of the past week, by enlisting the master of that
house into it. He is well disposed and has great riches, and
we can give him consequence to enjoy them." And Mr. Han-
cock did not disappoint his high expectations ; for in spite of
his occasional capriciousness, owing partly to disease, he threw
all the weight of his fortune and extraordinary popularity into
the scale of opposition to British encroachments. Every body
knows, that Hancock and Adams were the only men ex-
cepted from the general amnesty by Gage's proclamation, issued
by royal authority, which capped the climax of their renown.
It was not, however, until the year 1768, that the doctrine
of independence assumed something like a system. If not an
absolute, active body and soul, it was an embryo, which has
grown in due time to a young Hercules, who, from first strang-
ling serpents in his cradle, has, in his adult state, performed his

* Samuel and John Adams had the same Proavus, or great grand-
father, and, of course, were second cousins to* each other. Their com-
mon ancestor emigrated from Braintree in England, and alighted upon
Mount Wollaston ; and called the town, after his native place, Brain-
tree ; a portion of which is now the town of Quincy.

PORTRAIT OF SAMUEL ADAMS. 259

series of wonders ; and is now transferred among the heavenly-
signs.

I cannot leave this sketch of the character of Samuel Ad-
ams, without adding the finishing stroke, expressive of his mag-
nanimity. He always held up to an admiring populace the
splendid picture of his friend Hancock, while he himself stood
behind it, without allowing so much as his little finger to be
seen.*

After the death of Governor Hancock, Mr. Adams was
chosen Governor of Massachusetts (in 1794), and resigned the
station after sustaining it three years.

The son of Oxenbridge Thacher, whom we have already
mentioned, preached his funeral sermon, and said justly of
him, " The dignity of his manners was well expressed by the
majesty of his countenance ; an index of a mind never debased
by grovelling ideas, nor occupied in contemplating low pursuits ;
yet this appearance was accompanied with a suavity of tem-
per, qualifying him for those charities and graces so highly or-
namental to the most sublime and dignified character. Few
are there who better discharged the social relations of life ;
neither would it be easy to find a more tender husband, more
affectionate parent, or more faithful friend. He would easily
relax from severer care and study, to enjoy the delight of pri-
vate conversation ; so that some, who disliked his politics,
loved and revered him as a neighbour and friend. But though
he could thus disrobe himself from more elevated duties to at-
tend the calls of common life, yet his conduct and manners
embraced such correct decorum as never to deserve a re-
proof from the wise and good. His house was the seat of do-

* J. Adams and T. Jefferson retained their characteristic facul-
ties to the last, particularly the latter. But not quite so, Samuel
Adams. Memory seemed to slip away from him faster than in
either of the others ; and though he lost not his reasoning powers, the
operation of his mind seemed like that of a complicated machine al-
most worn out by its incessant action ; yet it never lost its balance,
but suffered a gradual and uniform decay, like falling to sleep through
weariness, the result of a regular and temperate life.

260 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

mestic peace, of method and regularity. In a word, to borrow
the language of a very great man, in describing the life and
manners of a very good one, — " When did his walls ever wit-
ness any tumult or dissipation ; when was any spectacle or
conduct either to be seen or heard within them inconsistent
with the discipline of a most venerable and holy man." [Cice-
ro's Oration for Deiotarus, Governor of Galatia.]

Yet is there no monumental stone, erected any where, of this
meritorious man, and no other memorial but what is upon pa-
per written by others to tell that he ever existed ! — if, in-
deed, we may except a brass ' field-piece, dedicated to him by
the general Congress, at Philadelphia, on which is inscribed,
in bold relief, these words ;

" The
ADAMS.
Sacred to Liberty.
This is one of four cannon, which constituted the whole train

of Field Artillery,

Possessed by the British Colonies- of

North America,

At the Commencement of the war on the

19th of April, 1775.

This cannon and its fellow, belonging to a number of

citizens of Boston, were used in many

engagements during the war.

The other two, the property of the Government of

Massachusetts, were taken by the enemy.

By order of the United States,

In Congress assembled,

May 19th,

1788."

Why this brass field-piece is not placed on the floor of our
State House near to the fine marble Statue of Washington,
is a question hard to answer at this time.

CHAPTER X.

PARALLELISM BETWEEN JUNIUs's LETTERS AND CHATHAM'S

SPEECHES.

Should these pages ever be read beyond the bounds of
these United States, the distant reader may form some idea
of the great American question from the preceding chapter,
brief as it is. He will see the opinion of that oracle of the
law, Earl Camden, respecting the right of the British Parlia-
ment to tax the Americans without their consent. Every one
knows the opinion of Lord Chatham and of the leading whigs
of England, who, on that subject, made a common cause with
the Americans, notwithstanding the King ventured to bring
that great question to trial before the grand jury of both
countries and the judgment-seat of the world*.

If the foreigner should pursue the subject, he will find, that
Lord North, the " King's Attorney," was, in this trial, a
timid man, betraying misgivings at every step, making it evident
that he acted not from himself, but from the Throne, if not
from behind it. On the other side, he may see that the first
English settlers of Massachusetts quitted their home, and came
to a wilderness to enjoy self-government, civil and religious,
with a determination to maintain it ; and that they did enjoy it,
and prospered, until after General Amherst completed the con-
quest of Canada. He will also learn, that the colonies gene-
rously submitted to a pretty heavy external tax under the guise

262 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

of regulations of trade, as a contribution for protection, and in
conformity to the haughty navigation act ; but that they ever
obstinately resisted the smallest internal taxation.

The distant reader may perceive, that, although Samuel
Adams was the first apostle who preached Independency, yet
it was a principle cherished by the first emigrants, and nour-
ished in New England, from the time of the first Charles,
till we secured it by force of arms in 177Q. He will see also,
that the Boston apostle of it preached, as did the first apostles
of a still better cause, to a few fishermen and mechanics near
the seashore, and they to others, till it spread, like the gos-
pel, from humble persons and despised places, and shook all
that could then be shaken in certain kingdoms. Since which,
South America has listened to the doctrine ; degenerated
Greece has welcomed it ; and Turkey cannot much longer
keep her eyes entirely closed to its light, seeing Russia has
awakened, after her long, cold night of sleep.

But let us attend to our avowed object, the valorous knight
in a mask and armour of polished steel, and lay before the
reader such passages from his writings, and from the re-
ported speeches of Lord Chatham, as show their consimili-
tude of sentiment and even phraseology, in order to illustrate
the very high probability, that both emanated from the same
mind.

With this in View, we cannot do better, than quote a part of
two chapters from " Junius Identified," a pleasant book,
published without a name, a few years since, in London, in
order to prove that Sir Philip Francis was the author of the
Letters in question. The work was re-printed in America ;
and from it I learn, that it was written by Mr. John Taylor, a
bookseller in London. If so, he adds one more to the num-
ber of respectable writers belonging to that class. I give his
own words. " The compiler of this investigation was acci-
dentally turning over the pages of ' Almon's Jlnecdotps of Lord
Chatham,' when his eye was caught by several passages so
much in the style of Junius, as to call forth this observation,

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 263

that either Lord Chatham was the author of the Letters, or
Junius had reported Lord Chatham's speeches."

Whether Mr. Taylor unluckily took the left hand road, and I
the right, is submitted to the determination of the reader.

For myself I was struck and strongly impressed with the
consimilarity long before Almon's Anecdotes of Lord Chat-
ham were published, and have expressed this opinion, occa-
sionally, during the last forty years of my life. In contem-
plating the subject, from time to time, and comparing one thing
with another, and scanning the powers, conduct, and characters
of men, during the latter part of the reign of George the Sec-
ond and the first ten years of his grandson, George the Third,
I became rivetted in the opinion, that Lord Chatham was the
author of the Letters in question, and that no other man could
be. In the citation of parallel passages the reader has only to
substitute, instead of the name of Sir Philip Francis and Ju-
nius, that of Lord Chatham and Junius, and our object, in
this portion of our disquisition, will be answered. On the re-
view of the whole, the reader will see how one part coheres
with the other.

Beside congeniality in political principle and moral senti-
ment, there is a remarkable similarity in metaphors and figures
in the writings of Junius and the speeches of Chatham. We
shall mention some of them.

Junius closes one of his letters with a simile, considered by
some the finest in our language. — " Private credit is wealth,
public honor is security. The feather that adorns the royal
bird, supports his flight. Strip him of his plumage, and you
fix him to the earth." Now, unless Junius was Chatham,
this beautiful metaphor savours of plagiary.

Lord Chatham said, in the House of Peers, — "My Lords,
I revere the just prerogative of the crown, and would contend
for it as warmly as for the rights of the people. They are
linked together, and naturally support each other. ] would
not touch a feather of the prerogative. The expression, per-
haps, is too light ; but since I have made use of it, let me

264 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

add, that the entire command and power of directing the local
disposition of the army is the royal prerogative, — is the master-
feather in the eagle's wing ; and if I were permitted to carry
the allusion a little farther, I should say, — they have disarmed
the imperial bird, — the ' ministrum fulminis alitem. y The
army is the thunder of the crown. The ministry have tied up
the hand which should direct the bolt." — Do we not here see
the germ in Chatham, of which the 'first quotation was the
flower of Junius ?

But it is not the similarity of figures so much as it is
the train of thought, the consimilarity of mind, which runs
through the speeches of Chatham, and pervades the Letters
of Junius, that has tended to convince me, that the speeches
of the one and the Letters of the other flowed from the same
clear intellectual fountain.

We here present our readers with a series of extracts,
selected and arranged in order to prove, that the report-
er of the speeches, namely, Sir Philip Francis, was the
identical author of the Letters ; whereas we contend, that the
great orator himself was, in fact, the penman of those cele-
brated productions, and we offer to our readers these parallel
passages as evidence of it. They are taken from the reports
of two. important debates in the House of Lords; one on the
ninth of January, and the other on the twenty-second of the
same month,' 1770, twelve months after the first Letter of
Junius appeared ; and but a few weeks after the date of his
famous Letter to the King ; — in a Word, in the height of the
energies of the letter-writer, and during the full blaze of the
eloquence of the orator.

PARALLEL PASSAGES FROM LORH CHATHAM'S SPEECHES AND

JUNIUs's LETTERS.

Lord Chatham said, that " he was satisfied there was a
power in some degree arbitrary, with which the constitution
trusted the crown, to be made use of under correction of the
legislature, and at the hazard of the minister, upon any sudden
emergency, or unforeseen calamity, which might threaten the

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 265

welfare of the people or the safety of the state. That on this
principle he had himself advised a measure, which he knew
was not strictly legal ; but he recommended it as a measure of
necessity, to save a starving people from famine, and had sub-
mitted to the judgment of his country." *

Junius. " That Parliament may review the acts of a min-
ister is unquestionable ; but there is a wide difference between
saying that the crown has a legal power, and that ministers
may act at their peril. Instead of asserting that the proclama-
tion was legal, he [Lord Camden] 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.'' "

Chatham said, " that the situation of our affairs was un-
doubtedly a matter of moment, and highly worthy their Lord-
ships' consideration ; but that he declared with grief, there
were other Tnatters still more important, and more urgently
demanding their attention. He meant the distractions and di-
visions which prevailed in every part of the empire. He la-
mented the unhappy measure, which had divided the colonies
from the mother country, and which he feared had drawn
them into excesses which he could not justify. He owned his
natural partiality for America, and was inclined to make allow-
ance even for these excesses. That they ought to be treated
with tenderness, for in his sense, they were ebullitions of liber-
ty, which broke out upon the skin, and were a sign, if not of
a perfect, at least of a vigorous constitution, and must not be
driven in too suddenly, lest they should strike to the heart."

Junius. " No man regards an eruption upon the surface,
when the noble parts are invaded, and he feels a mortification
approaching his heart."

* Prohibiting the exportation of corn in a year of scarcity.
34

266 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

" I shall only say, give me a healthy, vigorous consti-

tution, and I shall hardly consult my looking-glass to discover
a blemish upon my ski i."

Chatham said, " that liberty was a plant that deserved to be
cherished, that he loved the tree, and wished well to every
branch of it ; that, like the vine in scripture, it had spread
from East to West, had embraced whole nations with its
branches, and sheltered them under its leaves. That the
Americans had purchased their liberty at a dear rate, since
they had quitted their native country, and gone in search of
freedom to a desert."

Junius. " They [the Americans] left their native land in
search of freedom, and found it in a desert.' 1 ''

Now, the passage from Junius bears the date of December
19, 1769, and the other was spoken by Chatham January 9,
1770. "In this instance," says Mr. Taylor, "the speech
copies the letters ; but to suppose that Chatham and Junius
reciprocally borrowed from each other, is to encounter a great-
er difficulty for the sake of avoiding a less." True, sir ; but
on our hypothesis, every difficulty is removed by supposing
that Junius felt, thought, and wrote like Chatham, in spite
of all his efforts at concealment.

Chatham said, " that it was the duty of that House to inquire
into the causes of the notorious dissatisfaction expressed by
the English nation, to state those causes to the sovereign, and
then to give him their best advice in what manner he ought to
act. That the privileges of the House of Peers, however
transcendent, however appropriated to them, stood, in fact,
upon the broad bottom of the People. They were no longer
in the condition of the barons, their ancestors, who had sepa-
rate interests, and separate strength to support them. The
rights of the greatest and of the meanest subjects now stood
upon the same foundation, — the security of law, common to a?/."

Junius, two months after, makes the same declaration in
different words. " However distinguished by rank or property,
in the rights of freedom we are all \:q,ual. As we are

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 267

Englishmen, the least considerable man among us has an inter-
est, equal to the proudest nobleman, in the laws and constitu-
tion of his country."

Chatham. " It was therefore, said he, their [the Peers']
highest interest, as well as their duty, to watch over and guard
the people ; for when the people had lost their rights, those of
the peerage would soon become insignificant. To argue from
experience, he begged leave to refer their Lordships to a most
important passage in history, described by a man of great abil-
ities, Dr. Robertson. This writer, in his life of Charles the
Fifth (a great, ambitious, wicked man), informs us, that the
Peers of Castile were so far cajoled and seduced by him, as
to join him in overturning thai part of the Cortes, which
represented the People."

Junius says, " I am persuaded you will not leave it to the
choice of seven hundred persons [Parliament], notoriously cor-
rupted by the crown, whether seven millions of their equals
shall be freemen or slaves." — " Without insisting upon the ex-
travagant concessions made to Henry the Eighth, there are in-
stances, in the history of other countries, of a formal, delibe-
rate surrender of the public liberty into the hands of the sove-
reign"

Chatham. "They [the' Peers of Castile] were weak
enough to adopt, and base enough to be flattered with an ex-
pectation, that, by assisting their master in this iniquitous pur-
pose, they should increase their own strength and importance.
What was the consequence ? They exchanged the constitu-
tional authority of Peers, for the titular vanity of Grandees.
They were no longer a part of the Parliament, for that they
had destroyed ; and when they pretended to have an opinion
as Grandees, Charles told them he did not understand it; and
naturally enough, when they had surrendered their authority,
he treated their advice with contempt. The consequence did
not stop here. He made use of the people, whom he had en-
slaved, to enslave others, and employed the strength of the
Castilians to destroy the rights of their free neighbours of Ar-
ragon."

268 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS,

Junius expresses the result of this precious portion of Span-
ish history, in these few words ; " We are the slaves of the
House of Commons, and, through them, we are the slaves of
the King and his ministers."

Lord Chatham, continuing the same suhject, says, " Let
this example be a lesson to us all. Let us be cautious how
we admit an idea, that our rights stand on a footing different
from those of the people. Let us be cautious how we invade
the liberties of our fellow-subjects, however mean, however
remote ; for, be assured, my Lords, that, in whatever part of
the empire you suffer slavery to be established, whether it be
in America, or in Ireland, or here at home, you will find it a
disease which spreads by contact, and soon reaches from the
extremities to the heart. The man, who has lost his own
freedom, becomes, from that moment, an instrument in the
hands of an ambitious prince, to destroy the freedom of others."

Junius. " We can never be in real danger, until the forms
of Parliament are made use of to destroy the substance of our
civil and political liberties ; until Parliament itself betrays its
trust, by contributing to establish new principles of government,
and employing the very weapons committed to it by the collec-
tive body, to stab the constitution." (March, 1770.)

Chatham. " These reflections, my Lords, are but too ap-
plicable to our present situation. The liberty of the subject
is invaded, not only in provinces, but here at home. The
English people are loud in their complaints ; they proclaim,
with one voice, the injuries they have received ; they demand
redress, and, depend upon it, my Lords, that, one way or oth-
er, they will have redress. They will never return to a state
of tranquillity until they are redressed ; nor ought they ; for
in my judgment, and I speak it boldly, it were better for them
to perish in a glorious contention for their rights, than to pur-
chase a slavish tranquillity at the expense of a single iota of
the constitution."

Junius says to the King, " 1 confess, sir, I should be con-
tented to renounce the forms of the constitution once more, if
there were no other way to obtain substantial justice."

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 269

" The time is come, when the body of the English

people must assert their own cause. Conscious of their strength,
and animated by a sense of their duty, they will not surrender
their birth-right to Ministers, Parliaments, or Kings."

" If an honest, and, I may truly affirm, a laborious

zeal for the public service, has given me any weight in your
esteem, let me exhort and conjure you never to suffer an inva-
sion of your political constitution, however minute the instance
may appear, to pass by without a determined, persevering re-
sistance. One precedent creates another. They soon accu-
mulate, and constitute law. What yesterday was fact, to day
is doctrine." (Dedication to the English nation.)

Chatham. " Let me entreat your Lordships, then, in the
name of all the duties you owe to your sovereign, to your
country, and to yourselves, to perform that office, to which
you are called by the constitution, by informing his Majesty
truly of the condition of his subjects, and of the real cause of
their dissatisfaction. I have considered the matter with most
serious attention ; and, as I have not, in my own breast, the
smallest doubt, that the present universal discontent of the na-
tion arises from the proceedings of the House of Commons
upon the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, I think that we ought, in
our address, to state that matter to the King, which I beg leave
to submit to the consideration of the House, viz.

" ' And for these great and essential purposes, we will, with
all convenient speed, take into our most serious consideration
the causes of the discontents which prevail in so many parts
of your Majesty's dominions, and particularly the late pro-
ceedings of the House of Commons, touching the incapacity
of John Wilkes, Esq. (expelled by that House), to be elected
a member to serve in this present Parliament, thereby refusing
(by a resolution of one branch of the legislature only) to the
subject his common right, and depriving the electors of Mid-
dlesex of their free choice of a representative.' :

Then rose Lord Mansfield and said, " that he had never de-
livered any opinion upon the legality of the proceedings of the

270 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

House of Commons on the Middlesex election, nor should he
now, notwithstanding any thing that might be expected from
him. That he had locked it up in his own breast, and it
should die with him."

Junius to Lord Mansfield. " As a Lord in Parliament,
you were repeatedly called upon to condemn or defend the
new law declared by the House of Commons. You affected
to have scruples, and every expedient was attempted to re-
move them. The question 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 entrusted, nor how soon you carry
it with you to your grave." Junius adds, in a note to this pas-
sage, " He said, in the House of Lords, that he believed he
should carry his opinion with him to the grave." (November
24, 1770.)

As no report of this speech had then been published, Mr.
Taylor concludes, that Junius was in the House at the time it
was delivered. After Lord Mansfield had finished his elabo-
rate but evasive speech, the

Earl of Chatham arose and said, " My Lords, there is
one plain maxim, to which I have invariably adhered through
life ; that in every question, in which my liberty or my proper-
ty was concerned, I should consult and be determined by the
dictates of common sense." Six months prior to this speech,

Junius, with reference to the same subject, says, " It is a
point of fact, on which every English gentleman will determine
for himself As to lawyers their profession is supported by
the indiscriminate defence of right and wrong ; 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." (June 22, 1769.)

Chatham, referring still to Lord Mansfield's subtle speech,
said, " I confess,' my Lords, that I am apt to distrust the refine-
ments of learning, because I have seen the ablest and most

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 271

learned men equally liable to deceive themselves, and to mis-
lead others. The condition of human nature would be lament-
able indeed, if nothing less than the greatest learning and tal-
ents, which fall to the share of so small a number of men,
were sufficient to direct our judgment and our conduct. But
Providence has taken better care of our happiness, and given
us, in the simplicity of common sense, a rule for our direction,
by which we shall never be mislead."

Junius. " This proposition is singular enough, and turns
upon a refinement very distant from the simplicity of common
sense." " Now, my Lord, [to Mansfield] without pretending to
reconcile the distinctions of Westminster-hall with the simple
information of common sense." To Mr. Printer Wood fall, he
says, " The Latin word, simplex, conveys to me an amiable
character, and never denotes folly."

Chatham. " My Lords, I must beg the indulgence of the
House. Neither will my health permit me, nor do I pretend
to be qualified, to follow that learned Lord [Mansfield] minute-
ly through the whole of his argument. No man is better ac-
quainted with his abilities and learning, nor has a greater
respect for them, than I have. I have had the pleasure of sit-
ting with him in the other house, and always listened to him
with attention. I have not now lost a word of what he said,

NOR DID I EVER."

In this debate, Mr. Taylor remarks, that Junius not only
felt like Lord Chatham on this particular subject, but address-
ed Lord Mansfield in nearly similar terms ; yet he never sus-
pected that two characters were acted by the same person in
different scenes.

Junius says to the Lord Chief Justice. " In public affairs,
my Lord, cunning, let it be ever so well wrought, will not con-
duct a man honorably through life. Like bad money, it may
be current for a time, but it will soon be cried down. It
cannot consist with a liberal spirit, though it be sometimes
united with extraordinary qualifications. When I acknowl-
edge your abilities, you may believe I am sincere. I feel for

272 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

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 ad-
mired 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 understanding." Again,
" Junius never pretends to be a better lawyer than Lord
Mansfield ; on the contrary, he takes every opportunity to ac-
knowledge the superior learning and abilities of that wicked
judge." (Philo-Junius.)

There certainly is something very much resembling envy, if
not hatred, in Lord Chatham's treatment of Lord Mansfield ;
else why indulge in such bitter invectives, such mortifying sar-
casms, against the head officer of the English judicatory. He
continued it to his last breath in the House of Peers, when,
casting his eyes on Mansfield, he glanced at the Scotch rebel-
lion. In like manner Junius employs the last stroke of his
pen in writing this maledictory sentence. " Considering the
situation and abilities of Lord Mansfield, I do not scruple to
affirm, with the most solemn appeal to God for my sincerity,
that, in my judgment, he is the very worst and most dangerous
man in the kingdom. Thus have I done my duty in endeav-
ouring to bring him to punishment. But mine is an inferior
ministerial office in the temple of justice. / have bound the
victim and dragged him to the altar." *

* Our countryman, Copley, must have thought of these things, when
he painted apathy, personified in the likeness of Lord Mansfield, in his
famous picture of " the death o/Lord Chatham," — the only unmoved
countenance in the whole group.

We cannot judge of the feelings of Lord Chatham towards that
great law character ; but Dr. Bisset, whose partiality to the Scotch is
apparent in his history of George the Third, says, " that a reader, who
should know the origin, principles, and history of the American war,
without having attended to parliamentary debates and speeches, would
learn with surprise, that a most strenuous abetter of coercive measures,
a determined enemy to every plan of a conciliatory spirit, a supporter of
unconditional submission, and a prophesier of speedy subjugation, was

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 273

Chatham. " The constitution of this country has been
openly invaded in fact, and / have heard with horror and
astonishment that very invasion defended upon principle.
What is this mysterious power, undefined by law, unknown to
the subject, which we must not approach without awe, nor
speak of without reverence, which no man may question and to
which all men must submit ? "

Junius. " The known laws of the land, the rights of the
subject, the sanctity of charters, and the reverence due to our
magistrates, must all give way, without question or resistance,
to a privilege, of which no man knows either the origin or
extent.''''

Chatham. " My Lords [still referring to Lord Mansfield,
then sitting as Lord Chancellor], I thought the slavish doctrine
of passive obedience had long since been exploded ; and, when
our kings were obliged to confess, that their title to the crown
and the rule of their government had no other foundation than
the known laws of the land, I never expected to hear a divine
right or a divine infallibility attributed to any other branch of
the legislature. My Lords, I beg to be understood. No man
respects the House of Commons more than I do, or would
contend more strenuously than I would, to preserve them their
just and legal authority. Within the bounds prescribed by the
constitution, that authority is necessary to the well-being of

Lord Mansfield." If so, it is no wonder that the Earl ofChatham
detested him, and that Junius dragged him bound to the altar for
Lord Camden to sacrifice the British JJhitophel.

Dr. Bisset proceeds thus ; " Such powers of argument in cases of
momentous import, drawing conclusions from insufficient information
and erroneous principles ; such profound wisdom, sanctioning the meas-
ures, decrees, and acts of misinformation, precipitancy, and violence,
afford a striking instance of the weakness which, from the imperfec-
tion of human nature, is often intermingled with the most exalted qual-
ities ; it teaches the rcasoner in drawing his inferences, and the coun-
sellor in forming his schemes, not to place implicit reliance on either
the authority or example of even an illustrious sage." — History of
George the Third, Vol. II. p. 327. London edition.

274 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

the people ; beyond that line, every exertion of power is ar-
bitrary, is illegal ; it threatens tyranny to the people and de-
struction to the state. Power without right is the most odious
and detestable object that can the offered to he human imagi-
nation ; it is not only pernicious to those who are subject to it,
but tends to its own destruction. It is what my noble friend
[Lord Lyttleton] has truly described it, Res detestabilis et ca-
duca" — " I acknowledge the just power, and reverence the
constitution, of the House of Commons. It is for their own
sakes that I would prevent their assuming a power which the
constitution has denied them, lest by grasping at an authority
they have no right to, they should forfeit that which they le-
gally possess."

Junius. " In my opinion, you grasp at the imposssible, and
lose the really attainable.

Chatham. " I affirm that they have betrayed their con-
stituents and violated the constitution."

Junius. Let the people " 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 Home of Commons, and the constitution
betrayed.' 1 ''

Chatham. " Under pretence of declaring the law, they
have made a law, and united in the same persons the office
of legislator and judge.''''

Junius says, that " Parliament presumed to make a law
under pretence of declaring it," and pronounces it " a law in
pretence declared, in reality made. Legislation and juris-
diction are united in the same persons, and exercised at the
same moment ; and a court, from which there is no appeal, as-
sumes an original jurisdiction in a criminal case."

Junius continues, — " The crime, like the punishment, was
in their own bosoms. They were ex post facto legislators.
They were parties ; they were judges ; and instead of a court
of final adjudicature, acted as a court of criminal jurisdiction
in the first instance."

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 275

Chatham. " The noble Lord seems fond of the word ju-
risdiction, and, I confess, with the force and effect which he
has given it, it is a word of copious meaning and wonderful
extent." — " My Lords, we knew that jurisdiction was nothing
more than jus dicere, ; we knew, that legem facere and legem
dicere were powers clearly distinguished from each other in
the nature of things, and wisely separated by the wisdom of
the English constitution ; but now it seems we must adopt a
new system of thinking. The House of Commons, we are
told, have a supreme jurisdiction ; and there is no appeal from
their sentence; and that, wherever they are competent judges,
their decision must he received and submitted to as, ipso facto,
the laiv of the land."

Junius. " You have hitherto maintained, that the House
of Commons are the sole judges of their oivn privileges, and
that their declaration does, ipso facto, constitute the law of Par-
liament."

Chatham. " My Lords, J am a plain man, and have been
brought up in a religious reverence for the original simplicity
of the laws of England."

Junius on the same subject. " Is this the law of Parlia-
ment, or is it not ? / am a plain man, Sir, and cannot follow
you through the phlegmatic forms of an oration." And again,
referring to the same part of Lord Mansfield's speech, to
which Chatham alludes, he adds, " Suffer me, for I am a
plain, unlettered man, to continue the style of interrogation,
which suits my capacity."

Chatham. " By what sophistry they [the laws of Eng-
land] have been perverted, by what artifices they have been
involved in obscurity, is not for me to explain. The principles,
however, of the English laws are still sufficiently clear ; they
are founded in reason, and are the master-piece of the human
understanding ; but it is in the text that I would look for a di-
rection to my judgment, not in the commentaries of modern
professors. The noble Lord assures us, that he knows not in
what code the law of Parliament is to be found ; thai the

276 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

House of Commons, when they act as judges, have no law to
direct them but their oivn wisdom ; that their decision is law ;
and if they determine wrong, the subject has no appeal but to
Heaven. What then, my Lords, are all the generous efforts
of our ancestors, are all those glorious contentions by which
they meant to secure to themselves, and to transmit to their
posterity a known law, — a certain rule of living, reduced to
this conclusion, that instead of the arbitrary power of a king,
we must submit to the arbitrary power of an House of Com-
mons ? If this be true, what benefit do we derive from the
exchange ? Tyranny, my Lords, is detestable in every shape ;
but in none so formidable as when it is assumed and exercised
by a number of tyrants. But, my Lords, this is not the fact;
this is not the constitution ; we have a law of Parliament ; we
have a code, in which every honest man may find it. We
have Magna Charta ; we have the Statute Book, and the
Bill of Rights.

Junius. " The House of Commons judge of their own
privileges without appeal : — They may take offence at the
most innocent action, and imprison 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 question the privilege which he is supposed to have vio-
lated, it becomes an aggravation of his offence. Surely, Sir, this
doctrine is not to be found in Magna Charta. If it be ad-
mitted without limitation, 1 affirm that there is neither law nor
liberty in this kingdom. We are the slaves of the House of
Commons, and through them, we are the slaves of the King
and his ministers.'''' — " The people will grow weary of their
condition, and surrender every thing into the King's hands,
rather than submit to be trampled on any longer by five hun-
dred of their equals."

" The power of the legislature is limited, not only

by the general principles of natural justice and the welfare of the
community, but by the forms and principles of our particular
constitution. If this doctrine be not true, we must admit, that

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 277

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 dis-
solve the constitution by an act of Parliament. But I am per-
suaded you will not leave it to the choice of seven hundred
persons, notoriously corrupted by the crown, whether seven
millions of their equals shall he freemen or slaves."

Mr. Taylor remarks, that the first of these paragraphs could
only proceed from some person who heard the speech, and
took notes which would furnish him with this correct transcript
of it more than a year after.

Chatham. " What security would they [the people] have
for their rights, if once they admitted, that a court of judicature
might determine every question that came before it, not by any
known positive laiv, but by the vague, indeterminate, arbitrary
rule, of what the noble Lord is pleased to call ' the wisdom
of the court ? ' "

Junius, on the same occasion, says to Lord Mansfield, —
" Instead of those certain, positive rules, by which the judg-
ment 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 they ought, because the
consequence and tendency of each particular instance is not
observed or regarded. In the mean time the practice gains
ground ; the Court of King's Bench becomes a court of equity,
and the judge, instead of consulting strictly the law of the
land, refers only to the wisdom of the court and the purity of
his own conscience."

Chatham. " With respect to the decision of the courts of
justice, I am far from denying them their due weight and au-
thority, yet, placing them in the most respectable view, I still
consider them, not as law, but as an evidence of the law ;
and before they can arrive even at that degree of authority, it
must appear, that they are founded in, and confirmed by,
reason ; that they are supported by precedents, taken from

278 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

good and moderate times ; that they do not contradict any-
positive law ; that they are submitted to without reluctance by
the people ; that they are unquestioned by the legislature
(which* is equivalent to a tacit confirmation) ; and, what, in my
judgment, is by far the most important, that they do not vio-
late the spirit of the constitution. My Lords, this is not a
vague or loose expression ; we all know what the constitution
is ; we all know that the first principle of it is, that the subject
shall not be governed by the arbitrium of any one man or
body of men (less than the whole legislature), but by certain
laws, to which he has virtually given his consent, which are
open to him to examine, and not beyond his ability to under-
stand. Now, my Lords, I affirm, and am ready to maintain,
that the late decision of the House of Commons, upon the Mid-
dlesex election, is destitute of every one of those properties and
conditions which I hold to be essential to the legality of such a
decision. It is not founded in reason ; for it carries with it a
contradiction, that the representative should perform the office
of the constituent body. It is not supported by a single prece-
dent ; for the case of Sir Robert Walpole is but a half prece-
dent, and even that half is imperfect."

Junius, about six months before this speech, makes the
same remarks on the Middlesex question. " 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." — " There is no statute existing, by which that specific
disability which we speak of is created." — " There is no prece-
dent, in all the proceedings of the House of Commons, which
comes entirely home to the present case." — " He takes ad-
vantage eagerly of the first resolution, by which Mr. Walpole's
incapacity is declared ; but as to the two following, by which
the candidate with the fewest votes was declared not duly
elected, and the election itself vacated, I dare say he Avould be
well satisfied if they were for ever blotted out of the journals
of the House of Commons. In fair argument, no part of a
precedent should be admitted, unless the whole of it be given

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 279

us together. The author has divided his precedent, for he
knew that, if taken together, it produced a consequence di-
rectly the reverse of that which he endeavours to draw from
a vote of expulsion."

Chatham. " Incapacity was indeed declared, hut his crimes
are stated as the ground of the resolution, and his opponent
was declared, to be not duly elected, even after his incapacity
was established."

Junius. " Now, Sir, to my understanding no proposition of
this kind can be more evident, than that the House of Commons,
by their vote, themselves understood, and meant to declare,
that Mr. WalpoWs incapacity arose from the crimes he had
committed, not from the punishment the House annexed to
them. — 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 con-
trary, they declared Mr. Taylor * not duly elected, and the
election itself void. — The present House of Commons have
neither statute, nor custom, nor reason, nor one single prece-
dent to support them."

Chatham. " It contradicts Magna Charta and the Bill of
liights, by which it is provided, that no subject shall be de-
prived of his freehold, unless by the judgment of his peers or
the law of the land ; and that elections of members to serve
in Parliament shall be free ; and so far is this decision from
being submitted to by the people, that they have taken the
strongest measures, and adopted the most positive language, to
express their discontent. Whether it will be questioned by
the legislature, will depend upon your Lordship's resolution ;
but that it violates the spirit of the constitution, wdl, I think,
be disputed by no man, who has heard this day's debate, and
who wishes well to the freedom of the country."

Junius. " He not only betrays his master, but violates the
spirit of the English constitution." — " How long, and to what

* The name of the member opposed to Walpole.

280 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

extent, a King of England may be protected by the forms,
when he violates the spirit of the constitution, deserves to be
considered."

Chatham. " Yet, if we are to believe the noble Lord, this
great grievance, this manifest violation of the first principles of
the constitution, will not admit of a remedy ; is not even ca-
pable of redress, unless we appeal at once to Heaven."

Junius. " Far from discovering a spirit bold enough to in-
vade the first rights of the people, and the first principles of
the constitution.''' 1 — " But when I see questions of the highest
national importance carried, as they have been, and the first
principles of the constitution openly violated, without argument
or decency, I confess I give up the cause in despair."

Chatham. " My Lords, I have better hopes of the consti-
tution, and a firmer confidence in the wisdom and constitution-
al authority of this House. It is to your ancestors, my Lords, —
it is to the English barons, that we are indebted for the laws
and constitution we possess. Their virtues were rude and un-
cultivated, but they were great and sincere. Their understand-
ings were as little polished as their manners, but they had
hearts to distinguish right from wrong ; they had heads to dis-
tinguish truth from falsehood ; they understood the rights of
humanity, and they had spirit to maintain them."

Junius. " Their speech is rude, but intelligible ; their ges-
tures fierce, but full of explanation. Perplexed by sophistries,
their honest eloquence rises into action. The first appeal
was to the integrity of their representatives ; the 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 the Parliament, or supplication to the throne."

Chatham. " My Lords, I. think that history has not done
justice to their [the barons'] conduct, when they obtained from
their sovereign that great acknowledgment of national rights
contained in Magna Charta ; they did not confine it to them-
selves alone, but delivered it as a common blessing to the whole
people. They did not say, These are the rights of the great

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 281

barons, or, These are the rights of the great prelates. No, my
Lords, they said, in the simple Latin of the times, JVullus liber
homo* and provided as carefully for the meanest subject as
for the greatest. These are uncouth words, and sound but
poorly in the ears of scholars ; neither are they addressed
to the criticism of scholars, but to the hearts of freemen.
These three words, nullus liber homo, have a meaning which
interests us all ; they deserve to be remembered ; they deserve
to be inculcated in our minds ; they are worth all the classics.
Let us not, then, degenerate from the glorious example of our
ancestors. Those iron barons,\ for so I may call them, when
compared with the silken barons of modern days, were the
guardians of the people."

Junius. "When the bloody Barrington, that silken, fawn-
ing courtier at St. James's."

After reading the preceding argumentative paragraphs, from
the speeches of Lord Chatham and the Letters of Junius, can
we doubt of their flowing from the same intellectual fountain ?

Lord Chatham speaks slightingly of those who assume airs on
account of their rank as noblemen, and the writer of the Let-
ters holds them in the like estimation.

Junius. " At the same time that I think it good policy to
pay those compliments to Lord Chatham which, in truth, he
has nobly deserved, I should be glad to mortify those contempt-
ible creatures who call themselves noblemen, whose worthless im-
portance depends entirely upon their influence over boroughs.''''

Chatham. " Yet their virtues [the barons'] were never en-
gaged in a question of such' importance as the present. A
breach has been made in the constitution ; the battlements are
dismantled ; the citadel is open to the first invader ; the walls
totter ; the constitution is not tenable. What remains, then, but
for us to be foremost in the breach, to repair it, or perish in it ?

* No freeman.

f Baron, from haro, means emphatically a man, or vir of the Latins ;
hence the sarcasm, silken barons.

282 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

" Great pains have been taken to alarm us with the conse-
quences of a difference between the two Houses of Parliament ;
that the House of Commons will resent our daring to advise
the crown, and never forgive us for attempting to save the
state. I am sensible of the importance and difficulty of this
great crisis. At a moment such as this, we are called upon to
do our duty, without dreading the resentment of any man.
But if apprehensions of this kind are to affect us, let us con-
sider which we ought to respect most, the representative or
the collective body of the people. My Lords, five hundred
gentlemen are not ten millions ; and if we must have a con-
tention, let us take care to have the English nation on our side.
If this question be given up, the freeholders of England are
reduced to a condition baser than the peasantry of Poland. If
they desert their own cause they deserve to be slaves ! My
Lords, this is not merely the cold opinion of my understanding,
hut the glowing expression of what I feel. It is my heart
that speaks. I know I speak warmly ; but this warmth shall
never betray my argument nor my temper. The kingdom is
in aflame ! "

Junius. " The formality of a well repeated lesson is wide-
ly distant from the animated expression of the heart." — " For-
give this passionate language. I am unable to correct it. It
is the language of my heart.

Chatham. " As mediators between the king and people, it
is our duty to represent to him the true condition and temper
of his subjects. It is a duty which no particular respects
should hinder us from performing ; and whenever his Majesty
shall demand our advice, it will then be our duty to inquire
more minutely into the causes of present discontents. When-
ever that inquiry shall come on, I pledge myself to the House
to prove, that, since the first institution of the House of Com-
mons, not a single precedent can' be produced to justify their
late proceedings. My noble and learned friend, the Lord
Chancellor (Camden), has pledged himself to the House, that
he will support that assertion."

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 033

[" Next to Lord Temple, the most intimate political as well
as private friend of Lord Chatham was Lord Camden. It
does not appear, that the friendship which subsisted between
them was at any time interrupted. The bond of gratitude,
which unites one statesman to another, is, in general, supposed
to be weak. In the present instance it was strong and lasting
to the end of life ; for Lord Camden was one of the executors
of Chatham's last will and testament." *]

Chatham. " My Lords, the character and circumstances
of Mr. Wilkes have been very improperly introduced into this
question, not only here, but in that court of judicature where
his cause was tried ; I mean the House of Commons. With
one party he was a patriot of the first magnitude ; with the
other the vilest incendiary. For my oivn part, I consider him
merely and indifferently as an English subject, possessed of
certain rights which the laws have given him, and which the
laws alone can take from him. I am neither moved by his
private vices nor by his public merits. In his person, though he
were the worst of men, 1 contend for the safety and the security
of the best ; and God forbid, my Lords, that there should be a
power in this country of measuring the civil rights of the sub-
ject by his moral character, or by any other rule but the fixed
laws of the land.''''

Junius, nine months before this speech, advocates the cause
of Wilk§s on the same ground, and in language so little dissim-
ilar, that we are constrained, says Mr. Taylor, to believe that
he had a hand in the above. " For my own part," says he,
" I am proud to affirm, that, if I had been weak enough to
form such a friendship, 1 would never have been base enough
to betray it. But let Mr. Wilkes's character be what it may,
this is at least certain, that circumstanced as he is ivith regard
to the public, even his vices plead for him. The people of
England have too much discernment to suffer your Grace
[Duke of Grafton] to take advantage of the failings of a pri-

* Thackeray.

284 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

vate character, to establish a precedent by which the public lib-
erty is affected, and which you may hereafter, with equal ease
and satisfaction, employ to ruin the best men of the kingdom."
— " But the laws of England shall not be violated, even by
your holy zeal to oppress a sinner ; and though you have suc-
ceeded in making him the tool, you shall not make him the
victim of your ambition."

Chatham. " I believe, my Lords, I shall not be suspected
of any personal partiality to this unhappy man."

Junius, in a private letter to Mr. Wilkes, in reply to one
in which he complains of Junius's bad opinion of hinf, says,
" Think no more of what is passed. You did not then stand
so well in my opinion ; and it was necessary to the plan of
that Letter to rate you lower than you deserved. The wound
is curable, and the scar shall be no disgrace to you." — (Pri-
vate Letter, No. lxx.)

Chatham. " I am now suspected of coming forward, in
the decline of life, in the anxious pursuit of wealth and power,
which it is impossible for me to enjoy. Be it so ; there is
one ambition which I ever will acknowledge, which I will
not renounce but ivith my life. It is the ambition of deliver-
ing to my posterity those rights of freedom which I have re-
ceived from my ancestors.''''

Junius. " 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 inheritance to be
destroyed."

Chatham. " / am not now pleading the cause of an in-
dividual, but of every freeholder in England."

Junius. " Be assured that the laws, which protect us in
our civil rights, grow out of the constitution, and that they
must fall or nourish with it. This is not the cause of a fac-
tion, or of a party, or of any individual, but the common in-
terest of every man in Britain."

Chatham. ' ; It is possible, my Lords, that the inquiry I
speak of, may lead us to advise his Majesty to dissolve the

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 285

present Parliament ; nor have I any doubt of our right to give
that advice, if we should think it necessary. His Majesty will
then determine whether he will yield to the united petitions of
the people of England, or maintain the House of Commons in
the exercise of a legislative power, which heretofore abolished
the House of Lords and overturned the monarchy.''''

Junius. By depriving 1 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 Par-
liament, which first declared the regcd office useless, and soon af-
ter, 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"

Chatham. " I willingly "acquit the present House of Com-
mons of having actually formed so detestable a design ; but
they cannot themselves foresee to what excesses they may be
carried hereafter ; and, for my own part, / should be sorry to
trust to their future moderation. Unlimited power is apt to
corrupt the minds of those who possess it ; and this I know,
that where law ends, tyranny begins ! "

Junius. " Versed, as your Majesty undoubtedly is, in Eng-
lish history, it cannot easily escape you, how much it is your
interest, as well as your duty, to prevent one of the three es-
tates 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 ivill answer for their fu-
ture 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."

" In the last two extracts, the train of thought," says Mr.
Taylor, " pursued by Junius, is that which Lord Chatham
afterwards followed. Nor is it only in the line of argument
that we may observe this similarity ; the speech verbally resem-

2S6 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HI'S LETTERS.

oles the composition of Junius. Another particular, in which
the speech and the extracts remarkably agree, is in the pro-
phetic announcement of the dangerous consequences which
might ensue to the King, from maintaining and abetting the
House of Commons in the exercise of an unlawful degree of
power. This possible stretch of authority, it has been already
observed, was assumed on a memorable occasion, when Sir
Philip Francis, in his own person, protested against it with
as much energy and consistency, as if he had spoken in the
name of Lord Chatham, or written under that of Junius."

With this striking similarity in words, sentiments, and compo-
sition, the laborious compiler of " Junius Identified,'''' never
once thought that Chatham and Junius were two titles for the
same .person ! *

Here end the parallel passages 'of a celebrated speech 'of
Lord Chatham on the ninth of January, 1770, respecting the
conduct of the House of Commons in the expulsion of John
Wilkes, Esq., and certain portions of the letters of Junius on
the same subject. They were selected by Mr. Taylor to
prove, from the similarity of language and consftnilitude of sen-
timent between the Speech and the Letters, that Sir Philip
Francis, who was the reporter of the former, was actually the
author of the Letters ; while we adduce the comparison as evi-
dence of the Letters being the production of Chatham him-
self

Only three weeks intervened between the date of the fa-
mous Letter of Junius to King George the Third, and the
delivery of the foregoing speech.

* It is most earnestly to be wished, that our young gentlemen, going
through a course of public education, would study ardently the abili-
ties and character of Lord Chatham in his parliamentary speeches
and conduct, instead of imitating the false eloquence of the Hibernian
school, with which too marly are enraptured and* corrupted. While
aiming at the height of Chatham's excellence, some might happily im-
bibe his ever-during moral and political principles.

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 287

The consimilarity of sentiment, train of thought, and even
phraseology, discernible in passages from certain speeches
of Lord Chatham, • compared with portions of Junius on the
same subjects, are so adapted to the support of our hy-
pothesis, that we shall risk the patience of the reader by
calling his attention, as farther evidence, to another speech of
the English Demosthenes, delivered thirteen days after the
preceding one.

On the twenty-second of January, 1770, the Marquis of
Rockingham moved, in the House of Lords, for fixing a day
to take into consideration the state of the nation.

The object of the Marquis's speech was to show, that the
then unhappy condition of affairs, and the universal discontent
of the people, did not arise from any immediate temporary
cause, but had grown upon them by degrees from the moment
of his Majesty's accession to the throne ; that the persons in
whom his Majesty then confided had introduced a total change
in the old system of English government ; that they had adopt-
ed a maxim which must prove fatal to the liberties of the
country, viz. that the royal prerogative alone was sufficient to
support government, to whatever hands the administration should
be committed ; that he could trace the operation of this prin-
ciple through every act of government since the accession, in
which those persons could be supposed to have any influence.
He said, that the first exertion of the prerogative was to make
a peace contrary to the ivishes of the nation, and on terms total-
ly disproportioned to the successes of the tear ; but as they felt
themselves unequal to the conduct of the war, they thought a
peace, on any conditions, necessary for their own security and
permanence in administration. He then took notice of certain
odious, tyrannical acts of power, by which an approbation of
the peace had been obtained, and mentioned the genera] sweep
through every branch and department of administration ; the
removals not merely confined to the higher employments, but
carried down to the lowest offices of the state ; to men who
had subsisted with their families on salaries from fifty to two

288 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

hundred pounds a year, turned out to misery and ruin, to
create a new set of voters and parasites.

The Duke of Grafton spoke next after the Marquis upon a
number of little things in his desultory and confused manner,
and Lord Chatham concurred with the motion, and then spoke
of that condition of things which, he said, was corrupting the
very foundation of their political existence, and preying upon
the vitals of the state.

Chatham said, " If the King's servants will not permit a
constitutional question to be decided on according to the forms
of the constitution, it must be decided in some other manner ;
and rather than it should be given up, rather than the nation
should surrender their birth-right to a despotic minister, he
hoped, old as he was, to see the question brought to issue, and
fairly tried between the people and the government."

Junius, on the same topic, has the same expression. " The
time is come, when the body of the English people must as-
sert their own cause. Conscious of their strength, and ani-
mated by a sense of their duty, they will not surrender their
birth-right to ministers, parliaments, or kings." — " Every meas-
ure of government opens an ample field for a parliamentary in-
quisition. If this resource should fail us, our next and latest ap-
peal must be made to Heaven."

Chatham. " My Lords, this is not the language of faction;
let it be tried by that criterion, by which alone we can dis-
tinguish what is factious from what is not, — by the principles
of the English constitution. I have been bred up in those prin-
ciples, and know, that, when the liberty of the subject is in-
vaded, and all redress denied him, resistance is justified. If I
had a doubt upon the matter, I should follow the example set
us by the most reverend bench, with whom I believe it is a
maxim, when any doubt in point of faith arises, or any ques-
tion of controversy is started, to appeal at once to the Holy
Bible. The constitution has its political bible, by which, if it
be fairly consulted, every political question may and ought to
be determined. Magna Charta, the Petition of Rights, and

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 289

the Bill of Rights form that code which I call the Bible of the
English constitution.

Junius has the same singular cast of thought. "The civil
constitution, too, that legal liherty, that general creed which
every Englishman professes, may still be supported, though
Wilkes, and Home, and TWnshend, 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 Mag-
na Charta."

Chatham. " Had some of his Majesty's unhappy prede-
cessors trusted less to the comments of their ministers, had they
been better read in the text itself, the glorious revolution
would have remained only possible in theory, and would not
now have existed upon record, a formidable example to their
successors."

Junius calls the decapitation of Charles the First a " glorious
act of substantial justice," and glances at it repeatedly, even in
his Letter to the King.

Chatham. " I cannot agree with the noble Duke, that
nothing less than an immediate attack upon the honor or inter-
est of this nation can authorize us to interpose in defence of
weaker states, and in stopping the enterprises of an ambitious
neighbour. Whenever that narrow, selfish policy has prevail-
ed in our councils, we have constantly experienced the fatal ef-
fects of it. By suffering our natural enemies to oppress the
powers less able than we are to make resistance, we have per-
mitted them to increase their strength, we have lost the most
favorable opportunities of opposing them with success, and
found ourselves, at last, obliged to run every hazard in making
that cause our own, in which we were not wise enough to take

* Sir Philip Francis almost worshipped the Earl of Chatham. Had
he been Junius, would he have placed his idol last of the Fathers, when
in truth he was the first ?

290 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

part, while the expense and danger might have heen supported
by others. With respect to Corsica, I shall only say, that
France has obtained a more useful and important acquisition
in one pacific campaign, than in any of her belligerent cam-
paigns ; at least while I had the honor of administering the
war against her."

Junius. " If, instead of disowning Lord Shelburne [Secre-
tary of State, who gave instructions to Lord Rochford, then
English minister at Paris], the British court had interposed with
dignity and firmness, you know that Corsica would never have
been invaded. The French saw the weakness of a distracted
ministry, and were justified in treating you with contempt.
They would probably have yielded in the first instance, rather
than hazard a rupture with this country ; but being once en-
gaged, they cannot retreat without dishonor. Common sense
foresees consequences, which have escaped your Grace's pen-
etration.* Either we suffer the French to make an acquisition,
the importance of which you have probably no conception of;
or we oppose them by an underhand management, which only
disgraces us in the eyes of Europe, without answering any
purpose of policy or prudence. From secret, indirect assis-
tance, a transition to some more open, decisive measures be-
comes unavoidable ; till at last we find ourselves principals in
the war, and are obliged to hazard every thing for an object
which might have originally been obtained without expense or
danger ."

Here the words, sentiments, and train of thought exactly
accord with Lord Chatham, although Junius anticipated his
Lordship by several months. Now, if our hypothesis do not
absolutely blind us, nay, stupefy us, what we have here tran-
scribed approaches to. demonstration. As it regards the in-
dustrious compiler, Mr. Taylor, it shows how near men some-

* Letter to the Duke of Grafton, May 30, 1769. Lord Rochford
was a character, next after Lord Camden, of whom Junius speaks
with unmingled praise.

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 291

times come to a discovery, and yet miss it. It has been so
with some of the most useful inventions. Shall I, at this late
period of my life, add to the number of the hypothetically
blind?

Chatham. "My Lords, the condition of his Majesty's af-
fairs in Ireland, and the state of that kingdom within itself, will
undoubtedly make a very material part of your Lordships' in-
quiry. I am not sufficiently informed to enter into the subject
so fully as I could wish ; but by what appears to the public,
and from my own observation, I confess I cannot give the min-
istry much credit for the spirit or prudence of their con-
duct. I see that even where their measures were well chosen,
they are incapable of carrying them through, without some un-
happy mixture of weakness or imprudence. They are inca-
pable of doing entirely right."

Junius to the Duke of Grafton. " There is something in
both [your character and conduct], 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"

Chatham. " I do from my conscience, and from the best
weighed principles of my understanding, applaud the augmen-
tation of the army," he. &c.

We have inserted this striking consimilitude in page 263,
and therefore omit it here, but annex what was said upon it by

Junius. " The ministry, it seems, are laboring to draw a
line of distinction between the honor of the crown and the
rights of the people. This new idea has yet been only 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 honor is that
of the people. Their real honor and interest are the same.
I am not contending for a vain punctilio. A clear, unblemish-
ed 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

292 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

foundation of peace, of independence, and of safety. Private
credit is wealth; public honoris security. The feather, that
adorns the royal bird, supports his flight. Strip him of his plu-
mage, and you fix him to the earth."

We have said already, in page 264, that we find, in Lord
Chatham's speech of the ninth of January, 1770, the germ of
this beautiful flower of Junius. We agree in sentiment with
Mr. Taylor on the striking consimilarity of the two splendid
passages ; at the same time we wonder, that the writer, who
saw and felt, again and again, the congeniality, never once
raised his eyes from the reporter, — the stenographer, up to the
spiritual original ! Such purely ex corde sentiments, fixed opin-
ions, and fine rhetorical figures, must be a rivulet /ro/ra the same
clear intellectual fountain, and by no means the mere incidental
clothing of a reporter, however able.

Chatham. [The following is a weighty paragraph, — a rich
portion of the history of England, in the early part of the reign
of George the Third.] " My Lords, I am not unpractised in
business, and if, with all that apparent diligence and all that
assistance which the noble Duke speaks of, the accounts in
question have not yet been made up, I am convinced there
must be a defect in some of the public offices, which ought to
be strictly inquired into and severely punished. But, my
Lords, the waste of the public money is not of itself so impor-
tant, as the pernicious purpose to which we have reason to
suspect that money has been applied.

" For some years past, there has been an influx of wealth
into this country, which has been attended with many fatal con-
sequences, because it has not been the regular, natural produce
of labor and industry. The riches of Asia have been poured
in upon us, and have brought with them not only Asiatic luxu-
ry, but, I fear, Asiatic principles of government. Without con-
nexions, without any natural interest in the soil, the importers
of foreign gold have forced their way into Parliament, by
such a torrent of private corruption, as no private, hereditary
fortune could resist. My Lords, not saying but what is within

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 293

the knowledge of us all, the corruption of the people is the
great original cause of the discontents of the people them-
selves, of the enterprise of the crown, and the notorious decay
of the internal vigor of the constitution. For this great evil
some immediate remedy must be provided ; and I confess, my
Lords, I did hope, that his Majesty's servants would not have
suffered so many years of peace to elapse, without paying
some attention to an object, which ought to engage and* inter-
est us all. I flattered myself I should see some barriers thrown
•up in defence of the constitution, some impediment formed to
stop the rapid progress of corruption."

Junius. " I am concerned to see that the great condition
which ought to be the sine qua non of parliamentary qualifica-
tion, which ought to be the basis, as it assuredly will be the
only support, of every barrier raised in defence of the consti-
tution, — I mean a declaration upon oath to shorten the dura-
tion of Parliaments, is reduced to the fourth rank in the esteem
of the Society."*

Chatham. " I doubt not we all agree that something must
be done. I shall offer my thoughts, such as they are, to the
consideration of the House ; and I wish that every noble
Lord, who hears me, would be as ready as I am to contribute
his opinion to this important service. I will not call my own
sentiments crude and indigested ; it would be unfit for me to
offer any thing to your Lordships which I had not well con-
sidered ; and this subject, I own, has long occupied my
thoughts. I will now give them to your Lordships without
reserve.

" Whoever understands the theory of the English constitu-
tion, and will compare it with the fact, must see at once how
widely they differ."

Junius. " Certainly nothing can be less reconcilable to
the theory, than the present practice of the constitution"

Chatham proceeds. " We must reconcile them to each
other, if we wish to save the liberties of this country ; we must

* Society for the support of the Bill of Rights.

294 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

reduce our political practice as nearly as possible to our prin-
ciples. The constitution intended, that there should be a per-
manent relation between the constituent and representative
body of the people. Will any man affirm, that, as the House
of Commons is now formed, that relation is in any degree
preserved ? My Lords, it is not preserved, it is destroyed.
Let us be cautious, however, how we have recourse to violent
expedients."

Junius. " That the people are not equally and fully repre-
sented is unquestionable. But let us take care what we at-
tempt."

Chatham. " The boroughs of this country have properly
enough been called the rotten parts of the constitution. I
have lived in Cornwall, and, without entering into any invid-
ious particularity, have seen enough to justify the appellation.
But, in my judgment, my Lords, these boroughs, corrupt as
they are, must be considered as the natural infirmity of the
constitution. Like the infirmities of the body, we must bear
them with patience, and submit to carry them about with us.
The limb is mortified, but the amputation might be death."

Junius. " As to cutting away the rotten boroughs, I am as
much offended as any man at seeing so many of them under
the direct influence of the crown, or at the disposal of pri-
vate persons ; yet, I own, I have both doubts and apprehen-
sions in regard to the remedy you propose. I shall be charged,
perhaps, with an unusual want of political intrepidity, when
I honestly confess to you, that 1 am startled at the idea of so
extensive an amputation."

" When all your instruments of amputation are prepared ;
when the unhappy victim lies bound at your feet, without the
possibility of resistance, by what infallible rule will you direct
the operation ? When you propose to cut away the rotten
parts, can you tell us what parts are perfectly sound ? Are
there any certain limits in fact or theory, to inform you at what
point you must stop, — at what point the mortification ends ? "
[In a private letter to John Wilkes, Esq.]

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 295

Chatham. " Let us try, my Lords, whether some gentler
remedies may not be discovered. Since we cannot cure the
disorder, let us endeavour to infuse such a portion of new
health into the constitution, as may enable it to support its
most inveterate diseases."

Junius. " Besides that I approve highly of Lord Chat-
ham's idea of infusing a portion of new health into the consti-
tution, to enable it to bear its infirmities, (a brilliant ex-
pression, and full of intrinsic wisdom) other reasons concur in
persuading me to adopt it."

Chatham. " The representation of the counties is, I think,
still preserved pure and uncorrupted. That of the greatest
cities is upon a footing equally respectable ; and there are
many of the larger trading towns, which still preserve their in-
dependence. The infusion of health, which I now allude to,
would be to permit every county to elect one member more,
in addition to their present representation. The Knights of
the shires approach nearest to the constitutional representation
of the country, because they represent the soil."

Junius. " Lord Chatham's project, for instance, of increas-
ing the number of Knights of shires appears to me admirable."

Chatham. " It is not the little dependent boroughs ; it is
in the great cities and counties that the strength and vigor of
the constitution resides, and by them alone, if an unhappy
question should ever arise, will the constitution be honestly and
firmly defended. I would increase that strength, because 1 think
it is the only security we have against the profligacy of the times,
the corruption of the people, and the ambition of the crown.

" I think I have weighed every possible objection that can
be raised against a plan of this nature ; and I confess I see but
one, which, to me, carries any appearances of solidity. It
may be said, perhaps, that when the act passed for uniting the
two kingdoms (England and Scotland), the number of persons
who were to represent the whole nation in Parliament was pro-
portioned and fixed on for ever ; that this limitation is a funda-
mental article, and cannot be altered without hazarding a dis-
solution of the union.

296 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

" My Lords, no man who hears me can have a greater rev-
erence for that wise and important act, than I have. I revere
the memory of that great Prince who first formed the plan,
and those illustrious patriots who carried it into execution.
As a contract, every article should be inviolable ; as the
common basis of the strength and happiness of two nations,
every article of it should be sacred."

Junius. " / am far from impeaching the articles of the
union.''''

Chatham. " T hope I cannot be supected of conceiving a
thought so detestable, as to propose an advantage to one of the
contracting parties at the expense of the other. No, my
Lords, I mean that the benefit should be universal, and the
consent to receive it unanimous. Nothing less than a most
urgent and important occasion should persuade me to vary
even from the letter of the act ; but there is no occasion, how-
ever urgent, however important, that should ever induce me to
depart from the spirit of it. Let that spirit be religiously pre-
served. Let us follow the principle upon which the repre-
sentation of the two countries was proportioned at the union ;
and when we increase the number of representatives for the
English counties, let the shires of Scotland be allowed an equal
privilege." — " My Lords, besides my warm approbation of the
motion made by the noble Lord [Marquis of Rockingham], 1
have a natural and personal pleasure in rising up to second it.
I consider my seconding his Lordship's motion, and I would
wish it to be considered by others, as a public demonstration
of that cordial union which, I am happy to affirm, subsists
between us, — of my attachment to those principles which he
has so well defended, and of my respect for his person.
There has been a time, my Lords, when those*, who wished
well to neither of us, who wished to see us separated for
ever, found a sufficient gratification for their malignity against
us both. But that time is happily at an end.

" The friends of this country will, I doubt not, hear with
pleasure, that the noble Lord and his friends are now united

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 297

with me and mine, upon a principle which, I trust, will make
our union indissoluble. It is not to possess or divide the
emoluments of government ; but, if possible, to save the state.
Upon this ground we met, — upon this ground we stand firm
and inseparable. No ministerial artifices, no private offers, no
secret seduction can divide us. United as we are, we can set
the profoundest policy of the present ministry, their grand,
their only arcanum of government, their Divide et impera, at
defiance."

The parallel passages, which we have adduced, were se-
lected by a judicious writer, who searched them out for a pur-
pose different from our own : his was to prove that the
reporter of Chatham's speeches was in fact Junius, as he per-
ceived they contained not only his sentiments on several
important topics, but partook of his peculiar style and turn
of thought; whereas we have recourse to them to show,
that, instead of a mere reporter or stenographer, the great
orator himself was actually the audacious writer of the fa-
mous Letters, and that they and the equally famous Speeches
flowed from one and the same intellect. In holding this paral-
lelism up to view, we trust that we have neither magnified
trifles, nor traced similitudes where no likeness exists. We
moreover hope, that the attentive reader will re-peruse these
abstracts, for the richness of the matter and the corresponding
weight of the diction. They are pure gold ; while our adap-
tation may be considered only as the soldering. They are
valuable on another account ; they are extracted from portions
of two speeches, mighty in their personal and political conse-
quences. They confused still more a weak and discordant
ministry, and greatly enraged a self-willed monarch, who, in a
fit of resentment, took the great seals from the Lord Chancel-
lor Camden, on a suspicion that he divulged certain secrets of
the privy council to his friend, Lord Chatham, who had spoken
thus freely of the executive measures.

After the second of these speeches was delivered, several
resignations followed, and among them that of the vacillating

298 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

and timorous Duke of Grafton ; and very many refused to ac-
cept of places under the crown ; not a man of consequence
would deign to take the place of Prime Minister, or Lord High
Chancellor. At length the King sent for Mr. Charles Yorke,
second son of the Earl of Hardwicke, who had held the offices
of Solicitor and Attorney-General to great satisfaction, and
whose elevation to the chancellorship had been long anticipated
as a very desirable event. He waited on his sovereign with
the fixed resolution of not accepting that station. Some courtly
writers say, that he reluctantly accepted the seals by the express
command of his Majesty ; but we uncourtly Americans, who

dare " speak truth and shame the d ," say, it was by

dint of wheedling, earnest intreaty, and even the tears of a
King, remarkably dexterous in the choice of means to obtain
his object, that this honor was inflicted upon the unhappy
man, who was ashamed to meet his friends after being thus
immediately operated upon, so that while the patent of his
peerage (that of Baron Morden) was preparing, he destroyed
his own life.* The great seals were then offered to Sir
Eardly Wilmot, who refused them, and to Lord Mansfield,
who declined them. In this perplexed condition of the
monarch's affairs, the Earl of Mansfield was made Speaker
of the House of Lords pro tern. At the same time the
Marquis of Granby resigned all his appointments, except the
regiment of blues ; the Duke of Beaufort, his post of master
of horse to the Queen ; the Duke of Manchester and the Earl
of Coventry, those of Lords of the Bedchamber ; the Earl of
Huntingdon, his place of Groom of the Stole ; Mr. Dunning,
that of Solicitor-General ; and James Grenville, that of Vice-
Treasurer of Ireland. All seemed at a stand. Yet, in the
midst of this singular perplexity, George the Third maintained a
surprising firmness, or a quality somewhat resembling it. At
length, to the astonishment of the remnants, of a deserted
court, Frederick Lord North, a name very famous even in
these ends of the earth, was mentioned as a suitable man to

* Junius speaks of this with horror.

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 099

administer the government of the almost abandoned King.
Open-mouthed incredulity stared with astonishment, while such
characters as Charles Townshend, John Wilkes, and Lord
Sandwich laughed outright ; and these expressions of the soul
were not lessened on learning that North's promotion was
chiefly owing to the influence of the Princess Dowager of
Wales upon her son. This great lady condescended to per-
suade the Gilford family to encourage the too diffident Lord
North to take the helm, notwithstanding the crazy condition of
the ship and the squally state of the atmosphere ; and she re-
laxed not her efforts till she fixed him there. She knew the
importance of a good moral character with her son and with the
nation. She saw its resistless power, when united to great
abilities in a Chatham, a Camden, and a few other noblemen, and
could not but acknowledge the ruinous effects of the lack of it
in men and women endowed with great talents, rendered bril-
liant by high station. Earl Waldegrave's resentment must have
induced him to underrate the talents of the King's mother. Her
sagacity in this and some other instances sufficiently evinces her
superior powers of discrimination. She knew the sort of man
who would best suit her son in carrying on his designs against
America, and who would listen to and follow the advice of
Lord Mansfield and of Lord Bute's private secretary, Charles
Jenkinson, the confidential and official adviser of the Queen.*
Lord North was what some people affect to despise, " a
good sort of a man," very amiable, frank, honest, and replete
with good-natured wit, with an assenting conversation, and
without a personal enemy 5 to which we may add a diffidence
of his own abilities and fitness for the high station which was
offered him.f He hesitated, and asked the advice of every one,

* Lord Liverpool was, at that time, Solicitor-General to her
Majesty.

f Good personal appearance goes a great way in favor of a public
character, as in a Lord Chatham and a Mansfield in England, and
Washington in America. On this head Lord North was not felicitous.
Since the daye of ^Esop, hardly a great man can be named of a more

300 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

without daring to follow that of any, until he was fixed by the
stronger mind of the Germanic Minerva. The choice did
'credit to her penetration; for George Grenville had too many
scruples of conscience ;. the flourishing, versatile, Charles
Townshend was too flashy to lead, direct, or drive any great

ungainly figure. The staid and solemn Junius, in his thirty-ninth Let-
ter, speaks of him, ironically, as a minister who had a voice to per-
suade, an eye to penetrate, and a gesture to command ; and lest pos-
terity should mistake his words, he adds, in a note, " 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 pres-
ent writing (April, 1770) his head is supposed to be much too heavy
for his shoulders." It would puzzle, however, the executioner to de-
capitate him ; he would not know where his body ended, or head be-
gan. Mr. West, historical painter to his Majesty, once remarked to
the author, that Lord North looked more like a toad than any human
being he ever saw. The brilliant Charles Townshend, when Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer, said, pointing to Lord North, " See that great,
heavy, booby-looking, bursten-bellied, seeming changeling. You may
believe me, when I assure you it is a fact, that, if any thing should
happen to me [he died not long after], he will succeed to my place,
and very shortly after come to be First Commissioner of the Treasu-
ry." — [Public Characters of the most eminent Personages in the Parlia-
ment of Great Britain, considered as Statesmen, Senators, and Public
Speakers. London. 1777. p. 139.] Yet this was the man, whom the
Princess Dowager of Wales, whose judgment of the faculties of men
was never doubted, forced in a manner upon the King for his Prime
Minister ; a man as unlike Lords Sandwich, Holland, Bute, or Charles
Townshend, as can well be conceived.

Experience has long since taught me to discard the nonsense of
phrenology and the quackery of Lavaterism, as the most absurd and
unbenevolent system with which human nature has been insulted.
When I see external deformity, void of disease, I look out, almost in-
stinctively, for compensation in the mind. I am satisfied of the folly
of judging of the powers and bias of the soul by its case. How many
handsome fops and villains has society been pestered with, from Ab-
salom to Lovelace ? Has the adorable Creator made some men villains,
and then punished them for acting according to his material construc-
tion of them ? — No opportunity should be omitted " to justify the ways
of God to man."

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 301

portion of the nation, whether at home or abroad ; and the
whiffling Duke of Grafton too much of a weathercock. Lord
North was the very man to administer the miserable, half-way-
measures of George the Third towards the Americans, who
laughed at them both. His Lordship was contented to be, at
times, the minister of the interior, irresponsible cabinet, without
being contemptible ; and such was his easy disposition, that, in
the most perturbed seasons, — in times that tried men's souls, —
his Lordship would sleep and snore in the House of Commons
amidst the thunders of the opposition ; hence he was compared
to a top ; — the more whipped, the sounder it sleeps. To judge
of his character for pliability, we have only to reflect on his
coalition with Charles Fox, who had made him for years the
object of his keenest invective and the butt of his most pointed
ridicule. Nevertheless, Lord North had talents, character, good
intentions, fairness of mind, and manners that secured him the
good will of every one ; hence it happened that he was among
the most permanent ministers the crown ever employed ; for
as nobody envied him, so no one took pains to undermine and
remove him. He waddled through the American revolutiona-
ry war with Lord George (Sackville) Germaine for Secretary,
Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, for his Generals, in a conge-
niality with the whole group, that has no parallel in history ;
and as he never much excited our resentment, so we never felt
towards him a grudge like that, towards Lord Hillsborough and
the King's sword-bearer, the successful rival of Sir- Jeffrey
Amherst.*

At that eventful period to which we have alluded, Junius
appeared greatly interested in the parliamentary debates. It
was at an eve, says Mr. Heron, of an occasion upon which the
whigs hoped, at last, to force themselves in a body into ad-
ministration on their own terms. The Grenvilles, the Marquis
of Rockingham, with their respective adherents, were now
united. The Letter of Juntus to the King had just excited

* Lord Boutetourt, Governor of Virginia.

302 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

universal attention. The bold remonstrance of the City of Lon-
don increased the ferment. It appears by the private letters of
Junius to Wilkes and to Wood fall, that he was roused to the
utmost solicitude to effect a change of ministers. He requests
the latter to give notice of the contemplated co-operation,
or what, on such occasions, used to be called in Boston " the
long pull, the strong pull, and the pull altogether ; " and that by
the extraordinary method of "dispersing hand-bills;" and added
to his request, " Pray do whatever you think will answer this
purpose best, for now is the crisis." At this period, Mr. Tay-
lor remarks, that Junius and Lord Chatham still fought un-
der the same banner ; and Junius, on hearing that his
Lordship intended to support the Westminster remonstrance
by going to the Hall, writes to his printer in the flush of
hope, " I have no doubt that we shall conquer them at last ; ,!
and, alluding to Chatham's speeches in Parliament at the
same time, he says, in a private letter to Wilkes, " Chatham
has gallantly thrown away the scabbard, and never flinched.
From that moment I began to like him." [!] *

While Junius was calling on the people, and on the powers
above them through the press, Lord Chatham was pouring
forth his torrents of eloquence in Parliament on the same sub-
jects, in the strains which we have recorded in the form of
parallel passages in the preceding chapter. Mr. Taylor re-
marks, that, in the commencement of the first speech, viz. on
the ninth of January, the sentiments and expressions of Junius,
for the space of ten lines, were borrowed from what now ap-
pears to have been Lord Chatham's speech, and this without
any acknowledgment, though the Letter was written nearly
two years after the speech was made. The words are not
exactly the same, but they are as near as the notes, from
which they are supposed to be taken, would render neces-
sary ; as near as any man, writing at two distant periods,
from the same notes, would be likely to make them ; they con-

* The female partridge could not have practised a better lure.

JUNIUS AND CHATHAM PARALLELED. 303

vey the same thoughts, in the same order, with the fidelity of a
literal translation. " Now, in what way," says Mr. Taylor,
" is this to be accounted for ? There is no report printed
from which the passage could have been quoted, nor would
the plagiary have passed without observation if the original had
been known. The inference is unavoidable, that he, who
wrote the Letters, was likewise the Reporter of the Speech." [!]
After what we have said, repeated, and reiterated, we need
not add our inference.

The indefatigable compiler of the adduced passages, re-
marks upon them thus : — " Many other passages from the same
speech lead to the conclusion, that Junius had it in his memo-
ry when he wrote at a subsequent period. But let us proceed
to the second debate, and see whether in that also the internal
evidence is such as we have met with in the former. In the
first place Junius seems to have borrowed from this speech
those remarkable metaphors, the political Bible, and the feather
that adorns the royal bird, &ic. To have taken them he must
have heard the debate, for they are not elsewhere in print.
Secondly, in a private Letter to Wilkes, he speaks of cutting
aivay the rotten boroughs, in the figurative language of the
speech, and with the same doubts as to the policy of the act.
Thirdly, he not only alludes to the proposal of Lord Chat-
ham to increase the Knights of shires, but he quotes a passage
from the speech before us, in so very nearly the same words,
that we know not how to account for it, unless by the suppo-
sition, that he was himself the reporter. Under that idea the
coincidence explains itself; though, when it is considered that
notes only were taken of the speech, it may appear surprising,
that the two passages, when fully expressed, should bear so
close a resemblance to each other. But it is probable, that
the speech, though not published till twenty years after, was
composed while the original was fresh in the writer's memory,
which has caused it to be so intermingled with the thoughts
and expressions of Junius ; for, if viewed as the production
of another mind, it is equally unaccountable how much the

304 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

speech in return owes to the Letters." [Yet this unaccountable-
ness did not open his eyes so wide as to see the truth.] " Lord
Chatham borrows an illustration from the latter with the same
freedom that Junius quotes his Lordship ; and there is an
equal departure from literal precision in both cases, — a proof
that the thoughts at first all emanated from the same mind, and
were the property of one writer, whatever names he might as-
sume." Then Mr. Taylor selects some particular phrases,
used by Chatham, Junius, and Sir Philip Francis. Indeed
he fills a chapter of twenty pages with them, and makes the
same application to his favorite supposition.*

Duly reflecting on the labors of this industrious gentleman,
our feelings towards him are similar to what we should expe-
rience on seeing a man very deeply interested in making a
quick journey from Boston to Worcester, taking the road to
Lancaster ; which brings to mind one of the many excellent
sayings of Lord Bacon, viz. " A lame man in the right road
will beat a racer in the wrong." We have yet another feeling
towards this writer, lest, after our free use of his parallels, he
should say with Virgil, -in his beautiful epigram,

Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honor es ;

and
Sic vos non vobis nidificatis, aves ;
Sic vos non vobis meliificatis, apes.

But so it is in all improvements, where one man stands upon
the shoulders of another.

* " Junius occasionally intersperses, throughout his Letters, mtx-
ims, phrases and figures, thrown out by Lord Chatham viva voce." —
Taylor.

CHAPTER XI.

NOTICES OF LORD CAMDEN, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE MANSFIELD,
LORD HOLLAND, THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, THE DUKE OF
GRAFTON, AND LORD AMHERST, IN REFERENCE TO JUNIUS.

Our task would be incomplete, nor less so our satisfaction,
if we omitted to notice certain characters placed in the temple
of fame by Junius, standing like so many statues and busts on
pedestals, — others only in bold relievo, and some in fresco or
everlasting plaster, by a first-rate artist. Junius gives unqualified
praise to two characters alone, — Lords Camden and Rochford.
Of the latter we know only, that he was a very respectable
twig of an honorable branch of a venerable trunk of nobility,
and was honored with the good opinion of the fastidious Juni-
us. We " no further seek his merits to disclose." We had as
lief dig in the mud as hunt out British pedigrees and peer-
ages, in which perplexing process we Americans are liable to
ridiculous mistakes, gaining no credit if accurate, and losing
much if otherwise. The Briton delights in such researches,
while we colonists never troubled ourselves with inquiries of
this sort ; for, if we did, in some portions of the United States
we should be brought up by a convict, and in another by a
Puritan with his astringent countenance. The old world gene-
rally, the Britons particularly, are in the habit of looking back,
not only to the preterperfect, but to the preterpluperfect tense ;
whereas our views are all in ihe future, to the glory of those
whose native language is the English. Let us first speak of

Lord Camden.

The distinguished figure, which Charles Pratt, Lord Cam-
den, made during William Pitt's career of renown, and even

306 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

since that splendid period of English history, and the noble
picture of him by the masterly hand of Junius, mark him out
an object of particular attention. Besides, Camden is a name
dear to us Americans ; second to none but that of Pitt, alias
Chatham.

When this last named great statesman was forming his ever
memorable administration in July, seventeen hundred and fifty-
seven, he desired that Mr. Pratt, then a favorite pleader at
the bar of the House of Commons, should be made Attorney-
General, in the room of Sir Robert Henley promoted. As
Mr. Pratt was a highly valued friend of Pitt before and after he
became Lord Chatham, enjoying his confidence till his death,
and was, after it, one of his executors, we cannot, consistently
with our purpose (which is the connecting of the most interest-
ing portion of British history with that of America), pass him by
in a hurry, more especially as he was a distinguished favorite
of Junius, as well as the dear friend of Lord Chatham.

He was the son of Sir John Pratt, Lord Chief Justice of
the Court of King's Bench, educated at Eton school, and
was six years younger than his friend Pitt. He was a fellow
of King's College, Cambridge, as early as 1731. We are
told, that his professional practice was, for many years, but
narrow ; yet in 1752 we find him supporting the rights of Ju-
ries in opposition to William Murray, Esq. afterwards the cele-
brated Lord Mansfield, in a libel-case, in which Mr. Pratt's
client was acquitted. From that period, his path gradually
widened before him, so that, in 1761, he was constituted Chief
Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and, at the same time,
honored with knighthood. " Though he presided with dignity,
weight, and impartiality, he was yet more distinguished by the
boldness and independence of his decisions." When the fa-
mous champion of the people's rights, John Wilkes, was ar-
rested and committed to the tower, Sir Charles Pratt granted
him a writ of habeas corpus ; and when he was brought
before the court, he discharged him from confinement. May
it be ever remembered that, in the cause of the rights of the

NOTICE OF LORD CAMDEN. 307

people, the right honorable William Pitt and Sir Charles Pratt
marched to fame under the same banner. In the year 1765
he was created a Peer, by the title of Earl Camden, and, in
1766, was appointed Lord High Chancellor. Soon afterward
he was suddenly dismissed by his Sovereign, on suspicion that
he communicated some of the secrets of the privy-council to
his friend, Lord Chatham, who glanced at them in the famous
speech in the House of Lords already quoted ; which occasion-
ed the alarming resignations of that period. It is universally
known in this country, that Lord Camden was a warm, steady,
and consistent advocate of the great American cause, in which
he was cordially joined by Chatham and Rockingham in the
House of Lords, and Barre and Burke in the House of Com-
mons.

Earl Camden's life was protracted till April, 1794.

We are enabled to give a nearer view of Lord Chatham and
of Lord Camden than heretofore, from aid afforded us by our
venerated countryman, Doctor Franklin, who was noticed in
a particular and friendly manner by both of them.

Lord Chatham expressed to Dr. Franklin, on his second
visit to that nobleman, his high opinion of the American Con-
gress, commending their temper, moderation, and wisdom.
He inquired much and particularly concerning the state and
condition of the country ; the probability of their perseverance ;
the difficulties they must meet with in adhering, for a long
time, to their resolutions ; the resources they might have to
supply the deficiency of commerce. His Lordship expressed
great regard and warm affection for America, with hearty
wishes for her prosperity, and that government might soon
come to see its mistakes and rectify them ; and intimated, that,
possibly he might, if his health permitted, prepare something
for its consideration, when the Parliament should meet after
the holydays ; on which he wished to have Franklin's senti-
ments. " I mentioned to him," said the Doctor, " the very
hazardous state I conceived we were in, by the continuance of
the army in Boston ; that, whatever disposition there might be

308 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

in the inhabitants to give no just cause of offence to the troops,
or in the General [Gagl] to preserve order among them, an
unpremeditated, unforeseen quarrel might happen between
perhaps a drunken porter and a soldier, that might bring on a
riot, tumult, and bloodshed, and in its consequences produce a
breach impossible to be healed ; that the army could not pos-
sibly answer any good purpose there, and might be infinitely
mischievous ; that no accommodation could properly be pro-
posed and entered into by the Americans while the bayonet
was at their breasts'; that, to have any agreement binding, all
force should be withdrawn."

" From Lord Chatham's, I went," says the Doctor, - l to
wait upon Lord Camden. I met his Lordship and family in
two carriages, just without his gate, going on a visit of con-
gratulation to Lord and Lady Chatham on the recent marriage
of their daughter. They were to be back at dinner ; so I
agreed to go in, stay to dinner, and spend the evening there,
and not return to town till next morning. We had that af-
ternoon and evening a great deal of conversation on our Ameri-
can affairs, concerning which Lord Camden was very inquisi-
tive ; and 'I gave him the best information in my power. I
was charmed with his generous and noble sentiments, and had
the great pleasure of hearing his full approbation of the Con-
gress and their petition, of which, at his request, I afterwards
sent him a copy. He seemed anxious, that the Americans
should continue to act with the same temper, coolness, and
wisdom, with which they had hitherto proceeded in most of
their public assemblies ; in which case he did not doubt they
would succeed in establishing their rights, and obtain a solid
and durable agreement with the mother country ; of the ne-
cessity and great importance of which agreement, he seemed
to have the strongest impression." *

It is here manifest, that neither Lord Camden, nor Lord
Chatham, nor indeed Franklin himself contemplated an entire

* Franklin's Memoirs, published by his grandson.

NOTICE OF LORD CAMDEN. 309

separation of the two countries. Not many days after these
conversations, Dr. Franklin received a card from Lord Stan-
hope,* expressing Lord Chatham's wish, that he would be
present in the House of Lords, when he intended to make a
motion relative to the speedy removal of the troops from
Boston .

Dr. Franklin gives an animated account of Chatham's
speech on that occasion. It was then his Lordship declared,
of our first Congress, in the British House of Peers, that, " for
solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclu-
sion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no
nation, or body of men, can stand in preference to the general
Congress at Philadelphia ; and that all attempts to impose ser-
vitude upon such men must be vain and fatal ; and that if min-
isters persevere in misadvising and misleading the King, that
if they did not alienate the affections of his subjects, he would
affirm, that, the American jewel out of it, they would make
the Crown not worth his wearing."

After Lord Chatham had denied the right of Parliament to
tax the Americans without their consent, he was followed by
his friend.

Lord Camden, in a speech never, perhaps, surpassed, for
learning, perspicuity, and solid argument, said, " My Lords, I
have searched the matter, and I declare, not only as a states-
man, a politician, and a philosopher, but as a common law-
yer, you have no right to tax America." And he stated
some cases where it was lawful to resist Parliament. In this
united effort at conciliation with America, Lords Chatham
and Camden strove together with the utmost patriotic zeal ;
well knowing the consequences to English Liberty, if the
spirit of it should be extinguished in this country.

" On Friday the twenty-seventh of January, 1775," con-
tinues Dr. Franklin, "I waited again on Lord Chatham,

* Lord Stanhope was an able, honest, philosophical, and patriotic
man, but eccentric. If he was, in external appearance, below, he was,
in mind and philanthropic views, above his titular rank.

310 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

when he acquainted me, in a long conversation, with the out-
lines of his plan of conciliation, parts of which he read to me ;
and he said, that he had communicated it only to Lord Cam-
wen, whose advice he much relied on, particularly in the law
part."

Let it be remembered, that, less than thirty years ago, Lord
Eldon declared, in the House of Lords, that " the author of
Junius, if not himself a lawyer, must certainly have written in
concert with the ablest and best of lawyers." It was believed
by some in the higher circles, that Lord Camden and Lord
Temple knew the author of Junius.*

We have given this narrative and adduced these facts to
show, that there was not only a personal regard, like that be-
tween William Pitt and Henry Fox, of Eton-school origin,
but that a confidential one existed between the former and
Lord Camden, while no such confidential attachment ever
bound together Lord Chatham and Lord Holland ; their po-
litical walks, private occupations, and religious opinions were
widely different. The attachment between Chatham and
Camden was not a mere contact of generous feelings, but an
amalgamation, and of that sort which never suffered separa-
tion during their renowned lives, and hardly after it.

" Oh happy friends ! for if my pen could give
Immortal life, your fame should ever live,
Fixed as the Capitol's foundation lies,
And spread where'er our conquering Eagle flies." f

* " I know enough of Junius to know, that he was of Lord Temple's
school, and that he wrote that paper from hints or materials prompted
by him. So far he was betrayed in one of the Letters to Lord Cam-
den; for in that Letter he touched upon a fact known only to three
persons, Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, and Lord Temple.'''' — (See E.
H. Barker's Letters on Junius, p. 142.)

f " Fortunati ambo ! si quid mea carmina possunt,
Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet sevo:
Dum domus iEnese Capitoli immobile saxum
Accolet, imperiumque pater Romanus habebit."

Vir6. JEn. IX.
The above is Dryden's translation of the passage.

NOTICE OF LORD CAMDEN. 311

Having shown how Lord Camden and Lord Chatham stood
affected towards each other, let us see how Junius, the
man behind the curtain, stood affected towards the conspicuous
Lord Camden.

I think I have explained away the severe reflection, or rath-
er equivocal accusation against Lord Camden in the first Let-
ter of Junius, insinuating that Mr. Pitt and Lord Camden di-
vided, in effect, one half of the empire from the other, merely
to destroy George Grenville as a Prime Minister ; a most art-
ful lure, sported by the man in a mask to elude the pursuit of
curiosity and vengeance.

Lord Camden's friends endured a little mortification when
Junius attributed to him an illegal doctrine respecting the sus-
pension of an act of the legislature by the Crown, in the recess
of Parliament, on the plea of great necessity in a scarcity of
corn, occasioned by an inclement season. For so ascendant
was the spirit of this invisible being upon public opinion, that
his approbation or disapprobation was felt from the highest to
the lowest, from the throne to the play-house. The case was
this.

There was a failure in " corn" * and a scarcity all over Eu-
rope. A royal proclamation was issued, forbidding any further
exportation, and thus the laws were made, in this instance, to
give way to the mandates of the King and Council ; and this ar-
bitrary measure was advocated by Lord Chancellor Cam-
den. The Tories instantly turned Whigs and patriots, and
condemned the deed as an attack on the constitution, more
dangerous than the case of ship-money in the reign of Charles
the First, or the dispensing power assumed by James the Sec-
ond. They called it the "forty days' tyranny." Lord Cam-
den vindicated the measure on the ground of state necessity,
instead of saying, as Chatham once did, " I am aware that it

* In England they call corn what we in America call by the general
name of grain ; restricting the former term to maize. Thus we say, —
The crop of wheat is good, but the corn is bad : It is a good year for
barley and rye, but bad for corn.

312 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

is a step against law, but I am driven to it to obviate the great
calamity of famine, and therefore I throw myself on the mercy
of my country." In this single instance, Lord Chatham was
opposed in opinion to Lord Camden ; and so was the steady
and consistent Junius ; yet while they disagreed from the
great law Lord, they both spoke of him apologetically, well
knowing the sterling integrity of the man. But the " King's
Friends,'" — high prerogative men, — Tories, or by whatever
name you choose to designate those in Parliament who stood
opposed to the principles of Chatham, Camden, and Junius, —
these made a great outcry, indeed, in hopes of making a breach
between Camden and Chatham. They had felt and dreaded
their union and co-operation, and in this case they acted up-
on the devil's motto, — " Divide and conquer." But Chatham
and Junius, knowing their hearts, soon dissipated all their hopes
on that head. It is worthy of notice, that, on this question,
Lord Mansfield spoke against the power. of the Crown, and,
for the first .time, stood up for the constitution ; but, good as
his ground was, he was afraid to tread upon it.

Junius stiffly maintained his assertion in opposition to the
declaration of Lord Camden ; but instead of pouring forth a
torrent of invective and ridicule, as was too often the case with
him, he says, in a style of unusual respect, " With regard to
Lord Camden, the truth is, that he inadvertently overshot him-
self, as appears plainly by that unguarded mention of ' a ty-
ranny of forty days,' which I myself heard." Junius com-
mences his Sixtieth Letter, under the signature of Pkilo-Ju-
nius, thus, " I am convinced, that Junius is incapable of wil-
fully misrepresenting any man's opinion, and that his inclina-
tion leads him to treat Lord Camden with particular candor
and respect."

Yet all these facts are but trifling indications of the high re-
gard of Junius for Lord Camden, compared with his expres-
sions in his final Letter, which is addressed to that great law-
yer. It is in a strain of dignified solicitude, as if supplicating
the guardian angel of Britain to preserve from injury the sa-

NOTICE OF LORD CAMDEN. 313

cred temple of the laws, endangered by its Chief Hierophant.*
He says, in a style of remarkable grandeur,

" My Lord, — I turn with pleasure from that barren waste,
in which no salutary plant takes root, no verdure quickens, to
a character fertile, as I willingly believe, in every great and
good qualification.

" I call you, in the name of the English nation, to stand
forth in defence of the laws of your country, and to ex-
ert, in the cause of truth and justice, those great abilities, with
which you were entrusted for the benefit of mankind." —
" After the noble stand you made against Lord Mansfield
upon the question of libel, we did expect that you would not
have suffered that matter to have remained undetermined." —
" Your Lordship's character assures me, that you will assume
that principal part which belongs to you, in supporting the laws
of England against a wicked judge, who makes it the occu-
pation of his life to misinterpret and pervert them." — " When
the contest turns upon the interpretation of the laws, you can-
not, without a formal surrender of all your reputation, yield the
post of honor even to Lord Chatham." — " Considering the
situation and abilities of Lord Mansfield, I do not scruple to
affirm, with the most solemn appeal to God for my sincerity,
that, in my judgment, he is the very worst and most dangerous
man in the kingdom. Thus far I have done my duty in en-
deavouring to bring him to punishment. But mine is an infe-
rior ministerial office in the temple of justice. I have bound
the victim, and dragged him to the altar. Junius."

We know not how this article concerning Camden, Chat-
ham, and Junius will strike the mind of our reader ; but for

* JHadox says, that the Chief Jusliciarius was the greatest subject
in England. Beside presiding in the King's Court and in the Ex-
chequer, he was originally, by virtue of his office, the Regent of the
Kingdom, during the absence of the Sovereign, which, till the loss of
Normandy, occurred very frequently. Writs, at such times, ran in his
name, and were tested by him. — History of the, Exchequer.

314 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ourselves we, with all our cautious quality, cannot resist
saying, that it makes strongly in favor of the identification of
Junius with Chatham. It appears, that Chatham and Cam-
den were bound together in strict friendship all their lives with-
out any interruption. Forlunati ambo, indeed ! The closing
Letter of Junius and the executorship of Camden rivet our
opinion, and strengthen our hypothesis. Next to Lord Cam-
den, it seems that Lord Temple was the confidential friend of
Lord Chatham. This friendship was once unhappily broken
between the brothers, but soldered, and rendered thereby
stronger than ever. We next raise our eyes to

Lord Mansfield.

William Murray, William Pitt, and Charles Pratt, or, as
they are better known by their titles of Mansfield, Chatham,
and Camden, were three of the greatest men of their day.
We may add to them a fourth, Edmund Burke, a politician
sui generis.

The subject of this rapid sketch was early distinguished
as a very able, industrious, and learned young man, and, at
length, an acute and solid lawyer, a charming speaker, and
accomplished gentleman. Though immersed in the dry study
of the law, Mr. Murray's active and ambitious mind gave con-
stant proofs of its ingenuity, and aided him to a refinement of
manners superinduced on an amiable disposition, which im-
parted an air of high breeding and elegance ; and all these ac-
complishments were recommended by an uncommonly hand-
some person, totally free from all that impatience, which, at
times, marked and marred the illustrious Chatham. There was
one defect, however, which, though a trait of an amiable disposi-
tion, weakened his force as a great parliamentary orator, — a
dash of timidity, that induced a habit of discretion or prudence,
for which the Scotch are remarkable all the world over. In
this respect he was the reverse of Mr. Pitt, who, with less
learning, had more genius and courage of all kinds ; for with
a Demosthenical style of oratory, and a fearless heart that

NOTICE OF LORD MANSFIELD. 315

winged his words with lightning, he struck down all before him,
frequently covering his opponent with paleness and dismay.
The impetuous and domineering manner of Chatham some-
times overwhelmed the cool and guarded logic of Mansfield.

Naturally and nationally partial to the Stuart dynasty, Lord
Mansfield was yet a loyal and even a favorite subject of King
George the Third, and of the Princess Dowager of Wales, so
early as the time when it was supposed that Prince George
was in the leading-strings of Lord Bute.

We need not say, that Lord Mansfield was a Tory and
Lord Chatham a Whig* Opposite in political principles, they
were, it seems, rivals in fame, and, as far as we know, n the
favor of the Sovereign, Some have thought that Lord Chat-
ham envied Mansfield's learning, abilities, and influence, and
that he sought occasion in Parliament to diminish them. He
certainly spoke to him and of him in a spirit of apparent ran-
cor, and did not withhold a sarcasm as long as he was able to
utter any thing. Henry Fox (Lord Holland), in a letter to

* These cant terms, having been long since engrafted on classical
language, have become fixed, though a little variant in the United
States from the sense they bear in their original soil. Tory, in England,
means one who adheres to the ancient constitution of the state, and to
the apostolical hierarchy of the church of England. — Johnson. Whig,
one who advocates the constitutional rights of the people, as estab-
lished at the British revolution in lt>88. In America, those who advo-
cated resistance to British encroachments, during the reign of George
the Third, were called Whigs; while Tory is synonymous with a roy-
alist, or an advocate for our dependence on the realm of Great Britain;
so that we had in this country Episcopalian Whigs, and high Presby-
terian Tories. In England, I have seen the aristocracy of Whiggism,
and often the unobtrusive and amiable carriage of Toryism. Our cele-
brated countryman Dr. Franklin, when colony-agent, tried in vain, for
a series of years, to get access to Mr. William Pitt, though well ac-
quainted with his private secretary, Mr. Wood, when he might have
met with no difficulty in speaking with the Lord Chief Justice Mans-
field. In process of time, Lord Chatham returned Franklin's visit in
Craven street, and Lord Mansfield took particular care to notice, in
the House of Lords, our first minister, John Adams.

316 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

the Marquis of ' Hartington gives an account of Pitt's wonder-
ful eloquence, the day preceding, in the House of Commons,
which he describes in strains of rapture. His letter begins
thus. — " More news ! Pitt entertained us again yesterday ;
and I never wished more than yesterday for your Lordship,
for the pleasure it would have given you. I sat next Murray,
who suffered for an hour."

We would ask, in passing, whether any one was ever known
to treat that great man with the like harshness of language, even
to bitter invective, Junius alone excepted ? It has been often
remarked, that the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield was seen
to turn pale and tremble, when Lord Chatham rose up and
turned his menacing eyes upon him. It could not be entirely
for his advising and aiding the ratification of the peace in
1763, although that had a powerful operation in the mind of
the administrator of the war against France ; for he indulged
himself in the like strains of invective before that period.
Every one knows that the prime agent in making that abom-
inable peace was the Earl of Bute, and that that nobleman re-
garded his countryman Lord Mansfield as an oracle in every-
thing ; and it is as well known, than an animosity between
Chatham and Mansfield grew up and increased from the year
1762 to the close of the life of the former.

Earl Mansfield invariably voted against the repeal of our
obnoxious stamp act. The celebrated protest, which followed
the repeal, if not written originally by him, was certainly drawn
up under his eye, and defended, word by word, by the same
personage. He uniformly and steadily advocated the coer-
cion 1 of these colonies. In 1770 he supported the partial re-
peal of the port-duties, but carefully continuing that Trojan
horse, the duty on tea, which the British to this day consider
the immediate cause of their unhappy contention with and final
loss of America. When the whig phalanx, with Lord Rocking-
ham at its head, and Burke its cornet, went out of office, they
left the declaratory act as a salvo for the honor, or, as some
imagined, the deserted power of Great Britain, Lord Mansfield

NOTICE OF LORD MANSFIELD. 317

united with the administration in thinking, that the act for lay-
ing on the port-duties would be the means of breathing a soul
into the declaratory act, winch, without it or some other spe-
cies of acquiescence and active acknowledgment on the part
of America, must, he thought, remain lifeless, nugatory, and
ineffective ; for he looked upon the repeal of tbe stamp act as a
tacit relinquishment of the supreme authority of Britain over
this country. In a word, the Lord Chief Justice was an uni-
form and hearty supporter of all the measures of George the
Third in striving to bring America to his feet. Yet every co-
ercive measure, from the stamp act in 17G4 to our declaration
of independence, produced a directly contrary effect to that
which its abettors predicted. It is remarkable, however, that
Mansfield built all bis arguments and reasoning upon the single
supposition, that America had, from the beginning of her histo-
ry, aimed at independency, and that the utmost the people of
America would ever be prevailed upon to consent to, would be
an acknowledgment of the personal supremacy of the King of
Great Britain, detached, in that instance, from, and unconnect-
ed with his Parliament. And this may be considered as a
renewed proof of the superior sagacity of that very able man.
If Lord Chatham did not see this determination in the leading
men of New England and in Virginia, it was because he would
not.

There certainly was something very much resembling hatred
between Mansfield and Chatham in the reign of the Third
George. Ambition, the pride of great minds, is liable to
convert generous rivalship and competition into envy, which
sees nothing in a rival in a fair light. This unhappy pas-
sion grudges due praise to the merit of another, and natu-
rally generates aversion, a corrosive mixture, which is apt to
acquire, in advanced life, the morbid acrimony of hatred and
malice, and sometimes the venom of revenge. We have never
been able to detect very much of it in the Lord Chief Justice.
A man in that station ought to be as free from it as an Archbish-
op in his, though he was so imprudent as to soil his ermine with

318 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

politics. Whether there be any symptoms of venom or re-
venge in the writings of Junius, is left to the decision of every
judicious and candid reader.

While the Earl of Chatham was in the storms of political
strife, and sometimes in its hurricanes, Lord Mansfield was
preserved hy a gentle spirit from all such tempests, and, we
may add, from their heart-sinking calms. Until his house was
destroyed, and his library and manuscripts burnt by a London
mob, he had gone through life with an unruinpled temper;
whereas Chatham had encountered enough to ruffle the tem-
per of an Epictetus or a Socrates. He saw a man,* who was
never consulted in any negotiation before, nor ever labored for
his country, with a single stroke of his pen, assign to France
and Spain the fruits of conquests which had cost him the deep-
est thought and consideration to plan, and Englishmen the ut-
most exertion to achieve. Who can wonder at his indigna-
tion ?

It appears that Junius had taken as fixed a resolution
to pull down Lord Mansfield, as he, with Lord Bute and
their respective adherents, had to divest Chatham of his
vast popularity, and drive him from the service of his King
and Country. Neither of them obtained his wish entirely.
Chatham's sun sat in all its glory ; while Mansfield's seemed to
go down in a cloud, from the truculent fury of a London mob,
totally blind to his merits, and incapable of comprehending his
errors !

Henry Fox, — Lord Holland.

To my view it appears clearly, that both Junius and Lord
Chatham had a regard or forbearing friendship for Lord Hol-
land, without that amalgamation which appears to have subsist-
ed between Chatham, Camden, and Lord Temple, and even
George Grenville. Taking this for granted, we shall try,
in this sketch, to explain it ; and if we cannot, others may
from our imperfect hints.

* The Duke of Bedford.

NOTICE OF LORD HOLLAND. 3 1 9

We have said already, that Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt were knit
together in friendship at Eton school. Fox was the elder
by three years. They were young men of different constitu-
tions, complexions, and habits. Fox was one of those dark-
visaged, iron-fibred men, more resembling one of our aborigi-
nal Indian warriors of the very first rank, than what he really
was, a man of pleasure in a refined society. Frank, generous,
and unguarded in his temper, he had a kindness in his man-
ners that attached people to him of both sexes. He was,
however, sadly addicted to gaming, without a sordid feeling,
being universally respected as a man of honor, spirit, and in-
tegrity.

Fox and Pitt were frequently opposed to each other as far
back as the year 1754. The latter treated him, at times, as
he did every other opponent, and sometimes worse ; yet each
for the other had a steady friendship, partaking of kindred af-
fection, rather than congeniality of mind and habits. If Pitt
said a very severe thing in debate, and none could say severer,
which seemed to wound the feelings of his old school-fellow,
he generally followed it with something soothing. With keen-
ness of remark he commonly mixed something commendatory,
but in few words ; his friendship for Mr. Fox appears to
have been of that kind which ever excludes gaudy eulogy, —
like that of one good-natured, overbearing brother for another.
Though naturally quick, passionate, and resentful, it was ap-
parent to all in the House, that Fox bore the lash of the
" great Commoner " with wonderful coolness, and when very
severe, in a sort of sullen silence, as much as to say, — How
can you treat me so ! On one occasion, when the debate had
been very warm, and the flagellation severe, and the taunts
personal, Mr. Pitt declared to the House, that he never de-
scended to personality towards Mr. Fox ; who, on his part,
wished that every evil might befall him, if, when Secretary of
State, he had said, as was suspected, or hinted any thing to
the King (George the Second) to Mr. Pitt's disadvantage ; for
the old monarch was very partial to Fox, and almost hated Pitt.

320 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

The honorable fact was, Mr. Fox was proud of the extra-
ordinary talents of Lord Chatham without envying his friend,
— a brilliant proof of his noble disposition.

Lord Chesterfield, too little known in America, and only by
his lightest productions, — the Letters to his Son, — says, that
" Mr. Henry Fox had very great abilities and indefatigable in-
dustry in business ; great skill in managing (that is, corrupt-
ing) the House of Commons,' and a wonderful dexterity in at-
taching individuals to him ; and that he wisely and punctually
performed whatever he promised, and most liberally rewarded
their attachments and dependence. By these and other means
tbat can be easily imagined, he made himself many personal
friends and political dependants." But Chesterfield, that com-
petent judge of mankind and of motives, adds, " He had no
fixed principles either of religion or morality ; and was too
unwary in ridiculing and exploding them.'''' *

Mr. Heron, in a note on Junius, says, " Mr. Fox was one
of the most amiable of men in private life, — as a father, ten-
der, and attentive to educate his children upon that plan which
his notions of virtue, ability, and accomplishments, made him
believe to be best. His morality was that of honor ; his po-
litical principles had been learned in the school of Walpole."
It is probable that the eagle-eyed Chatham saw all this and
more, and therefore deemed him hardly fit to advise and direct
a Sovereign, whosejiigh office connected him with the church
as well as the state, and who was unusually attached to all the
forms and ceremonies of the Episcopal church. Chatham, how-
ever, employed him long in the highly responsible and confiden-
tial office of Secretary at War, during the whole of his famous
administration. George the Second was very desirous of secur-
ing the services of Mr. Fox in his cabinet. He used to say he
could understand all he said ; but that he could not always com-
prehend the meaning of the eloquent speeches made to him by

* Yet he kept in his family the Rev. Dr. Francis, the father of Sir
Philip, and the translator of Horace, for his Chaplain.

NOTICE OF LORD HOLLAND. 321

his Secretaries and Minister, Lord Chesterfield and Mr.- Pitt.
When the latter was called to form an administration, he would
not admit Fox into the government, or associate with him in
council. He doubtless knew somewhat of his habits, or his
notions of things, unfitting him for a privy counsellor to such
an orthodox Prince as George the Third. Mr. Fox held the
lucrative and highly responsible post of Secretary at War, dur-
ing Pitt's renowned administration, to the entire satisfaction of
that minister.

When the new ministry was on the tapis, the gossiping Duke
of Newcastle asked Mr. Pitt, invidiously, " if he could bear to
act under Mr. Fox ? " Pitt replied, " Leave out under, my
Lord. It will never be a word between us. Mr. Fox and I
shall never quarrel." Just before Lord Bute abandoned the
helm, Henry Fox was created Lord Holland ; and then he
became, in a degree odious, from a popular suspicion, that he
was. the confidential friend of that very unpopular Scotch no-
bleman, and accordingly he was accused of malversation in of-
fice, and that charge was actually made in a very bold remon-
strance to the King from the City of London ; in which
Lord Holland was characterized as "a paymaster, the public
defaulter of unaccounted millions,' 1 '' on whom the King had con-
ferred public honors and employments, instead of punishment.
This solemn charge excited uneasiness in Junius, who says
to his printer, Woodfall, in a private letter, July 21, 1769, —
" 1 ivish Lord Holland may acquit himself with honor. If
his cause be good, he should, at once, have published that ac-
count.''''

Upon this, Lord Holland came out in print, and justified
himself. To the foregoing passage, from the Letter of Ju-
nius, the editor of Woodfall's last edition says, " The editor
has already observed, in the Preliminary Essay, that Junius
appears to have uniformly entertained a good opinion of, or at
'east a partiality for, Lord Holland." The remark is not new ;

was noticed long ago.
41

322 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

We shall call up but one more witness to prove the very-
friendly feeling of Junius towards the virtuous heathen, — I
mean the Roman Senator and paymaster. It bears the genu-
ine marks of Junius, which is more than can be said of several
Letters collected under the head of " Miscellaneous,'''' in Dr.
John Mason GoooVs edition of them, published by the Younger
Woodfall.

In October 1771, Junius was attacked and criticized by a
writer in " The Public Advertiser," who called himself " Jin
Old Correspondent" and who turned out to be Young Charles
Fox, son of Lord Holland, whom Junius condescended to no-
tice thus :

To the Printer of the Public Advertiser.

" Sir, — If the pert youth, who calls himself an old corre-
spondent, and who makes free with Junius, does not know the
difference between contact and collision, nor between the fric-
tion which produces the electrical powers, and the action of
the flint and steel which' produces sparks of fire, his ignorance
must be deplorable. But what right has he to change the
terms ? — Why contact, when Junius says collision ? When
this pert youth asks what virtue there is in Mr. Wilkes, I wish
he would tell us what fire there is in flint and steel. It is ac-
tion that makes them sparkle ; and if there be any thing com-
bustible in the passions of Mr. Nash, a single spark may set
him on fire.

" Again. Junius admits the strict right of pressing seamen,
but denies the King's right to arm his subjects in general, ex-
cepting in case of invasion. This, my pretty Black Boy
calls a retraction of Junius's first concession, and applies to
his aged father for an old woman's proverb. Junius speaks
of softening the symptoms of a disorder. The Black Boy
changes the terms again, and destroys the allusion. The rest
of his letter is of a piece with these instances ; a misrepresenta-
tion of Junius, equally pert, false, and stupid. Ex his disce
omnia.

NOTICE OF LORD HOLLAND. 323

" I know nothing of Junius, [!] * but I see plainly, that he
has designedly spared Lord Holland and his family. Wheth-
er Lord Holland be invulnerable, or whether Junius should
be wantonly provoked, are questions worthy the Black Boy's
consideration. Anti-Fox."

Whatever impression this letter may make on others, I con-
fess it makes a strong one upon me. It appears to clinch
the nails already driven. Of the innumerable assailants of
Junius of every calibre, he could have swept them all aside
like so many insects ; but here was one written by a hoy,
crowded with misrepresentations and errors, which Junius
nevertheless deemed worthy of his deliberate notice ; for this
Letter is not a careless production ; and though the very ex-
tremity of the lower limb, we learn- — ex pede Herculem. The
whole composition affords internal evidence, that it was not
written to Lord Holland's pet alone, but to reach Little Pickle's
Papa also. The whole Letter is masterly among the familiar
ones. It gags the boy, and admonishes him not to exercise his
gosling pen upon the friend of his father and family. When we
consider the extremely faulty indulgence of Lord Holland to-
wards his brilliant son, Charles, the Letter of Anti-Fox must
have been not a little nettling, as it ridicules the ignorance of a
youth, whom the over fond father used to exhibit to his com-
pany as a prodigy of learning and talents.

If Junius saw that it was proper to check the too forward
boy, he took special care not to inflict a wound that would leave
a scar behind ; his stroke only affected the epidermis, a black
mark which the boy received from the black man, his doting
father, and which was therefore no moral stain upon the son.f

* Here it seems Junius knew nothing of himself! If the attentive
reader will put this and that together, there is little doubt but he
and the author will come out at the end of the same road; and, on
looking back upon it, he will wonder he never took it before.

f He who doubts this may read "Chrysal or the Adventures of a
Guinea" written by Charles Johnstone ; a coarse historical satire, in
which there are but two good characters to be found, namely, the
Right Hon. ffilliam Pitt and General Wolfe. Coarse as it is, it doubt-

324 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

The language of the whole Letter was, — Be quiet, and pro-
voke not one who is able to demolish you, and who has no
disposition to trouble any of Lord Holland's family, vulnerable
as the head of it is.*

The Letter of Anti-Fox is worth preserving. It bears the
indubitable impress of Junius. It shows the writer's tender-
ness towards Lord Holland and his family, and his friendship
in condescending to check a youth, lest he should injure them
or himself. He lets them know, by his signature, and by his
allusion to his swarthy visage, that he knew him, which was
enough to arrest his hardihood. It is valuable on another ac-
count. It confirms what was said in our chapter on acknowl-
edged " Difficulties to be removed" where we said that Ju-
nius must have stipulated with his conscience not to boggle at
an untruth; and here we have a glaring instance of it ; for he
makes no scruple of saying the thing which was not. How
could he himself say, " I know nothing of Junius ? "

He must have reasoned thus with his conscience. — Strata-
gem is allowed to be the sublime part of war, where the hero
holds up an appearance of something which he does not intend,
while under that mask he secures an important object. If,
then, a consummate military commander may, unblamed, act
a lie in his plan of attack or defence, and call it by the soften-
ed name of ruse de guerre, why may not I write, occasionally,

less gave origin to the North Briton, and that to the celebrated Let-
ters of Junius.

* Robert Bisset, LL. D., in his History of George the Third, says,
(in a note, Vol. iv. p. 4,) that, when he first came to London, he was
struck with surprise at the free and easy terms in which some of the
butchers and lower adherents of Charles Fox accosted, at the hustings,
a personage of his transcendent superiority. It was in the endearing
style of fond comrades, on a footing of perfect equality, — " Charles !
my sweet boy, — God bless your black face ! — don't be afraid, my lad,
we are your friends." No such thing ever occurred in Boston, demo-
crats as we are. No, — our elections are conducted with great order
and personal decorum ; and our legislative assemblies, in a style and
manner, which some of the European legislatures would do well if they
imitated.

NOTICE OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. 325

a falsehood to elude detection, and secure my otherwise en-
dangered life, — I, who am a political reformer, — a redresser
of wrongs, and the champion of rights? Shall the bloody steel
alone advance in safety under an iEgis of disguise, and shall
the feebler pen be deprived of the like protection and safe-
guard ?

The Duke of Bedford.

As the rich Duke of Bedford has had a double portion of
Junius's scorn, let us inquire into the cause of it.

The Duke of Bedford, to whom Junius addressed the bit-
ter letter, dated the nineteenth of September, 1769, became,
from several causes, the richest subject in the realm. Accord-
ing to that letter, it appears, that his immense wealth, instead
of elevating him in the eyes of the considerate, and widening
his sphere of benevolent usefulness, operated, like an enormous
weight, to lower him down in the public estimation. Yet a
very rich man will always have very great influence in such a
community as England, as well as in our own.

This spoiled child of fortune was sent ambassador to
France by the Earl of Bute, on the very critical occa-
sion of the peace, and had the honor, or, according to the
popular voice, the infamy, of negotiating the inadequate peace
of 1763. On his return to England, he quarrelled with Lord
Bute, and grossly insulted the King. Such is the arrogance
of riches.*

John Russell, Duke of Bedford, had reason for boasting
of a long line of illustrious ancestry ; yet was he rendered
contemptible and even odious by the pen of Junius, who
speaks of him in a tone of horror. During the reigns of King
William and of Queen Anne, the head of the House of Rus-

* On one occasion, " the Duke demanded an audience of George
the Third ; reproached him, in plain terms, with his duplicity, baseness,
falsehood, treachery, and hypocrisy ; repeatedly gave him the lie ; and
left him in convulsions." These are the words of Junius, in a note to
his Twenty-third Letter.

326 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

sell was distinguished among the most zealous of the whigs,
To this degenerate one, Junius speaks thus. " You are in-
deed a very considerable man. The highest rank, a splen-
did fortune, and a name glorious till it was yours, were suf-
ficient to have supported you with meaner abilities, than I
think you possess. From the first you derived a constitutional
claim to respect ; from the second, a natural extensive authori-
ty ; the last created a partial expectation of hereditary virtues.
The use you have made of these uncommon advantages
might have been more honorable to yourself, but could not be
more instructive to mankind." He then touches on several
little, disgraceful things, of a public, domestic, and middle
character ; among them he records the woful fact, that a
country attorney horsewhipped the Duke, with equal justice,
severity, and perseverance, on the race-ground at Litchfield.
Such was the general character of the representative of Lord
Bute at the court of Versailles, — a man, says Junius, who had
as little feeling for his own dignity, as for the welfare of his
country.

Mr. Pitt had no objection to a peace with France and Spain,
provided it were made on conditions consistent with the vigor
and success with which he had carried on the war. But what
must have been his mortification on seeing persons who were
never concerned or consulted in any negotiation before (as was
the case with the Duke of Bedford) assigning to the enemy, with
the " single stroke of his pen," conquests, which it had cost Lord
Chatham the deepest consideration to plan, and the greatest at-
tention and labor to carry into effect. Before the Duke was
sent to Paris, France had avowed herself ready to make very
many sacrifices to put an end to the war. The Duke of Choi-
seul, the French minister, put in operation all the arts of refine-
ment to lower the high demands of the haughty Mr. Pitt, who
always carried a lofty mind towards France and Spain. Know-
ing thoroughly the distressed condition of France, — her com-
merce destroyed, and her royal navy nearly annihilated, he saw
this was the critical time to establish the lasting pre-eminence of

NOTICE OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. 327

Great Britain, before Spain and France united in their con-
templated family -compact. He knew that he could prescribe
the terms of peace and secure to himself the glory of it ; and
Lord Bute and those immediately about him knew it also ; but
the darling object of his Lordship was to prostrate the political
idol which the People, Parliament, and Fame, had set up ; and
by thus pulling down the fabric of Chatham's glory, they thought
to put an end to his mighty influence in the nation. To effect
this he formed connexions with those who hated and envied
the great man. The first movement was to pull from under
him such a substantial prop as the Right Hon. H. B. Legge,
Chancellor of the Exchequer. This dismissal was pointedly
reprehended by Junius.

Now, if Junius was Lord Chatham, we see ample reason,
not only for his contempt, but utter antipathy, towards the richest
Peer in England. We cannot otherwise account for his dwel-
ling, with hyena-like pleasure, on the rotten part of the Duke
of Bedford's character. He says of him, " Your patrons want-
ed an ambassador who would submit to make concessions,
without daring to insist upon any honorable conditions 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 nobility. Belleish,
Goree, Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, Martinique, the Fishery, and
the Havanna, are glorious monuments of your Grace's talents
for negotiation. My Lord, we are too well acquainted with
your pecuniary character, to think it possible that so many
public sacrifices should have been made without some private
compensation. Your conduct carries with it an internal evi-
dence beyond all the legal proofs of a court of justice."

Still this branch of the noble House of Russell had great in-
fluence, by means of his riches and numerous dependents,
passing down through rills and runnels, even to gutters ; in so
much that Lord Chatham, when about to form a new adminis-
tration in 1766, deemed it politic to engage the interest of the
Duke of Bedford and his numerous friends. Lord dies-

328 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

terfield speaks thus of it to his son. " Eight or nine peo-
ple of some consequence have resigned their employments;
upon which Lord Chatham made overtures to the Duke of
Bedford and his people, but they could by no means agree;
and his Grace went the next day, full of wrath, to Woburn
[his country residence] ; so that negotiation is entirely at an
end. People wait to see who Lord Chatham will take next;
for some he must have ; even he cannot be alone contra mun-
dum.'''' But the truth must be told. " That superiority of mind,
and perhaps the gout, which had denied him the usual habits
of intercourse with the world, gave an air of austerity to his
manners, and precluded the policy of a convenient condescen-
sion to the minutia? of politeness, and fascinating powers of ad-
dress, when most needed." *

That (he general character of the Duke of Bedford was
very exceptionable we believe ; but the particular instances of
it we venture not to record at this distance of time and space.
In the height of religious or political controversy, what prudent
man will venture to fix the character of any leader ? We may
relate what was said, and leave it to truth and time. The
caustic Junius treats with ridicule his Grace the Duke of
Grafton ; but he speaks of the Duke of Bedford with horror,
and exclaims, " Whither shall this unhappy old man retire ?
Can he remain in the metropolis, where his life has been so
often threatened, and his palace so often attacked? If he re-
turns 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 Plymouth his destruction would
be more than probable ; at Exeter, inevitable. No honest
Englishman will ever forget his attachment, nor any honest
Scotchman forgive his treachery, to Lord Bute. At every
town he enters, he must change his liveries and his name.
Whichever way he flies, the hue and cry of the country pur-
sues him. As well might Vekres return to Sicily." What a
portrait !

* Anecdotes of the Life of Chatham.

NOTICE OF THE DUKE OF BEDFORD. 329

This was a critical period in the history of George the
Third, and of the great Statesman whom we have presumed to
celebrate. Lord Chatham's ill health, aside from mere gout,
affected his lofty spirit. He had now attained the critical
place in the ladder of human life, and at this climacterical
round of it he suffered like a common man ; yet he after-
wards blazed out brighter than ever in the House of Lords.
Three years after this period, Junius addressed that very se-
vere letter to his Grace of Bedford, from which we have
made some extracts. Woodfall was afraid to publish it ; but
was encouraged to it by a private letter from Junius in these
words. " As to you, it is clearly my opinion that you have
nothing to fear from the Duke of Bedford. I reserve some
things to awe him, in case he should think of bringing you be-
fore the House of Lords. I am sure 1 can threaten him pri-
vately with such a storm as would make him tremble even in
his grave ! "

Now, what man, what subject can be named, that could pos-
sibly have excited in Lord Chatham more resentment and dis-
gust, than this same Duke of Bedford?

In the peace he made, he gave up those West-India islands
enumerated in the bitter epistle already noticed, — the valuable
fruits of Lord Chatham's labors and success. We therefore per-
ceive ample reason for keen, and, one would think, lasting resent-
ment towards the Duke ; insomuch that we cannot readily be-
lieve, that a very able, ambitious, renowned, and eloquent man,
situated and circumstanced as Earl Chatham really was, would
go down quietly to the grave without leaving behind some written
memorial of those bereavements and the cause of them, with-
out giving some vent to his indignant feelings through his pen,
and that too in the severe and acrimonious style of the Let-
ter from which we have made extracts, in order to brand
the man, who, by " a single stroke of his pen," assigned to
the French and Spaniards conquests which had cost the minis-
ter and the nation such unparalleled exertions to achieve.
There is yet another, and to us mortifying view of the subject.

330 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

Lord Chatham could not but have known the reputation, nay,
more, the character of the Duke of Bedford. We say the
character, that which marks the man, and never fails to show
itself in spite of hypocrisy, be his reputation whatever it may.
We overrate the character of Chatham, if he was not a per-
sonage who looked through reputation, or what others thought,
to those indelible marks which stamp the man good, great, and
generous, or mean, sordid, and vicious. The vulgar are warp-
ed by name, by title, by vast riches, and their splendid concomi-
tants ; but the deep impress of the Duke's personal character
must have been fixed in the mind of our great statesman even at
the time when impaired health and gloomy ideas pressed heavily
upon it at Bath. It appears therefore strange, passing strange,
that Lord Chatham could ever, for a moment, have felt the
least wish to associate himself in office with any Peer, how-
ever high in rank or abounding in riches, with such a cast of
character as that which common fame attributed to John Rus-
sell, Duke of Bedford. How could a man of Chatham's well
known character, — integrity itself personified, — endure to be
yoked to the same car with one staggering through the world
under such a weight of odium as that laid upon the Duke of
Bedford ; a man base enough, fool enough, to treat his Sove-
reign in a worse manner than any genuine nobleman would in-
dulge towards an equal ?

We can account for Lord Chatham's overture to the Duke of
Bedford, only by supposing that he hoped to recover sufficient
health to enable him shortly to exert himself once more in the
cause he had long espoused. Otherwise we should be puzzled
to explain how he should risk roiling the fountain-head, by
placing near it such a foul character ; ade J that would have
justified Sir Philip Francis in saying of Lord Chatham, whom he
almost idolized, that he was " a great, illustrious, faulty human
being." But as it stood without explanation, it doubtless opened
a wide avenue for objurgation. His admiring biographer says,
this was the least glorious period of his life. Now how hap-
pened it, that this very conspicuous and influential character

NOTICE OF THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. 33 1

escaped the lash of Junits, see ; n?: his Lordship's bare back
lay so fair for it ? How came the great file-leader of whig-
gism to escape, in this instance, the animadversion of the keen
censor of the age, the fastidious arbiter morum, the eagle-eyed
Junius? — of him, who at his outset denounced Mr. Pitt and
Lord Camden, a> risking the integrity of the British empire
merely to destroy George Grenville as a minister ? He, who
can explain this silence, and that denunciation from the same
pen, upon any other hypothesis than our own, merits from the
author the homage due to a Magnus Apollo.

The Duke of Grafton

Having called forth a treble portion of the vituperation of
Junius, we are now to search out the hidden cause of it.

We understand clearly, why the Earl of Chatham hated
the Duke of Bedford, who did all in his power to demolish
the triumphal arch which Fame had erected to the honor of
that great man ; but we do not see so distinctly how Junius,
upon our hypothesis, had equal reason for detesting the Duke
of Grafton as a politician. He appears rather a weak and
trifling man, than a very wicked or dangerous one ; hardly
worth the powder and shot expended upon him. Or was it to
show that a mere effigy of a Prime Minister was wanted by a
Sovereign determined to be his own ?

Junius, under the signature of Atticus, October 19, 1768,
says, " When the Duke of Grafton first entered into office, it
was the fashion of the times to suppose that young men might
have wisdom without experience. They thought so themselves,
and the most important affairs of this country were committed
to the first trial of their abilities. His Grace had honorably
fleshed his maiden sword in the field of opposition, and had
gone through all the discipline of the minority with credit.
He dined at Wild man's, railed at favorites, looked up to Lord
Chatham with astonishment, and was the declared advocate of
Mr. Wilkes. It afterwards pleased bis Grace to enter into ad-

332 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ministration with his friend Lord Rockingham, and, in a very-
little time, it pleased his Grace to abandon him. He then ac-
cepted the Treasury upon terms which Lord Temple had dis-
dained. For a short time, his submission to Lord Chatham
was unlimited. He could not answer a letter without Lord
Chatham's permission. I presume he was then learning his
trade, for he soon set up for himself. Until he declared him-
self minister, his character had been but little understood.
From that moment a system of conduct, directed by passion
and caprice, not only reminds us that he is a young man, but
a young man without solidity of judgment. One day he de-
sponds and threatens to resign. The next, he finds his blood
heated, and swears to his friends he is determined to go on.
In his public measures we have seen no proof either of ability
or consistency. The stamp act had been repealed (no matter
how unadvisedly) under the preceding administration. The
colonies had reason to triumph, and were returning to good
humor. The point was decided, when this young man thought
proper to revive it. [Why not say the King thought proper
to revive it, and the young Duke was disposed to gratify him
in that and in every thing else ?] Without either plan or ne-
cessity, he adopts the spirit of Mr. Grenville's measures, and
renews the question of taxation in a form more odious and less
effectual, than that of the law which had been repealed.
. " His standing foremost in the prosecution of Mr. Wilkes, if
former declarations and connexions be considered, is base and
contemptible. The man whom he now brands with treason
and blasphemy, but a few years ago was the Duke of Grafton's
friend, nor is his identity altered, except by his misfortunes.
In the last instance of his Grace's judgment and consistency,
we see him, after trying and deserting every party, throw him-
self into the arms of a set of men, whose political principles
he had always pretended to abhor."

This is indeed an admirable portrait of a weakish, inconsist-
ent, ignorant, and presumptuous weathercock of a young no-
bleman, who injudiciously grasped more than he could hold,

NOTICE OF THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. 333

yet was sufficiently respectable as to rank to be a fit and gaudy
tool for the secret and irresponsible cabinet of that day to work
withal. The same Letter contains sketches of the characters
of Lords North, Shelburne, Hillsborough, Granby, Weymouth,
and Gower, with a very few words, not three lines, and those
obscure, on poor Lord Chatham, as too much worn to the
stump, like an old broom, to merit notice.. He intimates
that he had much to say of that forlorn nobleman, but for-
bears, because " it were inhuman to persecute, when Provi-
dence has marked out the example to mankind." Here the
chalk, from some cause or other, possibly the gout, fell from
the hand of Junius ! and left the portrait for posterity to fin-
ish, and — to venerate ! At about six weeks' interval, he
writes again under the signature of Lucius, and says, " I
think I have now named all the cabinet but the Earl of Chat-
ham. His infirmities have forced him into retirement, where,
I presume, he is ready to suffer, with a sullen submission, eve*-
ry insult and disgrace that can be heaped upon a miserable,
decrepid, worn-out old man."

Junius, under his own proper signature, says to the Duke
of Grafton, " 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 protec-
tion. 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
Duke of Cumberland's first negotiation failed, and when the fa-
vorite was pushed to the last extremity, you saved him by joining
with an administration in which Lord Chatham had refused to
engage. Still, however, he was your friend, and you are yet
to explain to the world why you consented to act without him ;

334 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

or why, after uniting with Lord Rockingham, you deserted
and betrayed him also.

" Lord Chatham formed his last administration upon prin-
ciples which you certainly concurred in, or you could never
have been placed at the head of the treasury. By deserting
those principles, and by acting in direct contradiction to them,
in which he fomid 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."

Who could this Junius be, who had such an intimate knowl-
edge of the mind of Chatham and the heart of Grafton ? Was
he some aerial being, superior in essence to ourselves, who was
thus capable of entering the minds and hearts of men, so as to
even know their motives, views, and expectations ? Or was
this seemingly magical power no other than that which springs
from the operation of a very strong mind over a weak one ?
Does our hypothesis savour of a creature of the imagination
merely, or has it a real prototype ?

Junius says, in the same- Letter, " Your Grace's public
conduct as a minister, is but the counterpart of your private
history ; — the same inconsistency, the same contradictions. In'
America we trace you, from the first opposition to the stamp
act on principles of convenience, to Mr. Pitt's surrender of the
right ; — then forward to Lord Rockingham's surrender of the
fact ; — then forward to taxation with Mr. Townshend ; and in
the last instance, from the gentle Conway's undetermined dis-
cretion, to blood and compulsion with the Duke of Bedford."

Junius, in a Letter to the Printer,* after describing the at-
tachments which the Duke of Grafton had formed, broken off,
or betrayed, says, that " he made himself accessary to the un-
timely death of Mr. Yorke, — I say accessary, because he was
certainly not the principal actor in that most atrocious business.
After all, when it was impossible for him to add to his guilti-

* Under the signature of Domitian.

NOTICE OF THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. 335

ness, a panic seizes him ; he begins to measure his expecta-
tions by the sense of his deserts ; a visionary gibbet appears
before his eyes ; he flies from his post, surrenders to another
the reward due to his honorable services, and leaves his king
and country to extricate themselves, if they can, from the dis-
tress and confusion in which he had involved them.

" Tiie danger, as he conceives, being now pretty well over,
what plan do you think this worthy, resolute young man pur-
sues at present ? While he was First Lord of the Treasury,
it is well known (and I speak from knowledge when I assert)
that he never treated Lord North even with the common ci-
vility due to his clerk. I appeal to Lord North himself, and
to every clerk in the treasury (particularly to Grey Cooper),
whether it was not known to be a difficult matter for the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer to obtain an audience even of Mr.
Thomas Bradshaw. Would you believe it possible, Sir, that,
after these facts, this very Duke of Grafton can be so de-
graded, so lost to every sensation of pride, of dignity, and de-
corum, as to be a suppliant beggar for employment to this very
Lord North ? Yet so it is ; and if I were to tell you with
what circumstances of humiliation he accompanies his suit to
that minister, the narrative would be nauseous and fulsome.
He is so very impatient to be First Lord of the Admiralty, that
Lord North can hardly keep the fawning creature from under
his feet. Now, Sir, let any man living, I care not whether
friend or foe, review this summary of his life, and tell us in
what instance he has discovered a single ray of wisdom, solidi-
ty, or judgment.

" As to the other test of his abilities, I mean his talent for
talking in public, I can speak with greater precision, for I
have often had the honor of hearing him. With a very solemn
and plausible delivery, he has a set of thoughts, or rather of
words resembling thoughts, which may be applied indifferently,
and with equal success to all possible subjects. There is this
singular advantage in his Grace's method of discourse, that, if
it were once admitted that he spoke well upon any one given

336 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

topic, it would inevitably follow, that he was qualified to deliver
himself happily upon every subject whatever. He would be ip-
so facto an universal orator. Accept of the following specimen
of his Grace's eloquence, and I promise you, you will be as
well able to judge of his oratorial powers, as if you had heard
him a thousand times.

" ' My Lords, — When I came into the House this day, I
protest I did not think it possible, — indeed I had formed in my
own breast a resolution to the contrary, — but, my Lords, I
really thought it impossible, that I should be compelled to
trouble your Lordships with my poor thoughts upon the ques-
tion before your Lordships. I never do presume to trouble
your Lordships at any time without feeling a pain, an internal
regret, — a degree of uneasiness which, I can with truth assure
your Lordships (and I flatter myself that I shall find credit
with every noble Lord who hears me), it is not easy for me
to have the honor of describing to your Lordships. My Lords,
I am called upon, as I humbly conceive, and I appeal boldly,
not only to the candor of noble Lords, but to your Lordships'
severer judgment, whether I am not compelled to declare my
sentiments, as explicitly as I now do, upon the motion upon
your Lordships' table. Upon this ground, my Lords, I meet
the noble Lord without fear, though I respect his superior
abilities, and I pledge myself to your Lordships for the truth of
what I assert. Otherwise, my Lords, if facts were not as I
have stated them, where will your Lordships draw the Hue ?
My Lords, I am really astonished, — yet indeed, my Lords, I
ought not to be astonished. The question has been handled
with so much ability by other noble Lords, that 1 shall con-
tent myself with this simple, unadorned declaration of my
opinion. Yet I could quote cases, my Lords, which I acci-
dentally met with this morning in the course of my reading,
which, I doubt not, would convince your Lordships, if convic-
tion were the question. But 1 fear I have troubled your Lord-
ships too long ; I shall therefore return to the leading propo-
sition, which I had the honor of setting out with, and ?nove for
an immediate adjournment? "

NOTICE OF THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. 337

Should it be susi ected, that this is not a correct likeness,
but a caricature of the noble Duke, it must still be allowed that
it is not a vulgar sketch. Leo cognoscitur pede. The same
personage says, in all sobriety, in his first and masterly Letter,
'•' The finances of a nation, sinking under its. debts and ex-
penses, 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
professions which gave him a moment's popularity, we see
him, from every honorable engagement to the public, an apos-
tate by design."

In a note to this text, Junius says, " The Duke of Grafton
took the office of secretary of state with an engagement to sup-
port the Marquis of Rockingham's administration. He re-
signed, 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 dis-
mission. When Lord Chatham came in, the Duke got pos-
session of the treasury. Reader," says Junius, " mark the
consequence ! " He snapped his finger in defiance of the
great statesman and his quondam patron, thus evincing, that
he was a minister exactly fitted for a King, who may be desig-
nated maximus in minimis.

Lord Chatham, in a speech delivered March 2, 1770, ridi-
culed the idea of the Duke of Grafton's having been minister,
and laughed at his presumption in thinking so. He spoke of
" the secret influence of an invisible power ; of a favorite (Bute),
whose pernicious counsels had occasioned all the present un-
happiness and disturbances in the nation, and who, notwith-
standing he was abroad,* was at this moment as potent as

* Although Lord Bute went to France with a view to lessen the
clamor against him, his influence was little or not at all diminished by
his absence. The nation felt it with disgust.

338 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ever ; — that Mazarine absent was Mazarine still. He had
ruined every plan for the public good, and betrayed every man
who had taken a responsible office. There wcs no safely, no
security against his power and malignity. The transaction of
the late peace was a proof of his influence ; — that measure was
his. He himself had been duped ; he confessed it with sor-
row ; he had been duped when he least expected treachery,
at a time when the prospect was fair, and when the appear-
ances of confidence were strong ; — in particular, at the time
when he was taken ill, and obliged to go to Bath for a short
week ; — he had, before he set out, formed, with great pains,
attention, and deliberation, schemes highly interesting and of
the utmost importance to this country ; — schemes, which had
been approved in council, and to which the King himself had
given his consent. But when he returned, he found that his
plans had all vanished into thin air.

" Raising his voice, he declared in a dignified tone, ' that this
country was sold at the late peace ; that we were sold by the
Court of Turin to the Court of France. [That Court being
the go-between in the preliminary articles of the peace between
France and England.] When I was earnestly called upon
for the public service, I came from Somersetshire with wings
of zeal. I consented to preserve a peace which I abominated ;
— a peace I would not make, but would preserve when made.
I undertook to support a government by law, but to shield
no man from public justice. These terms were accepted,
I thought with sincerity accepted. I own I was credulous ;
I was duped, I was deceived ; for I soon found that there was
no original administration to be suffered in this country. The
same secret influence still prevailed, which had put an end to
all the successive administrations as soon as they opposed, or
declined to act under it?

" Here the Duke of Grafton jumped up and exclaimed, ' J
rise to defend the King ! The words which have been spoken
are only the effects of a distempered mind, brooding over its
own discontent.'

NOTICE OF THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. 339

"To which Lord Chatham calmly replied, i I rise neither to
deny, to retract, nor to explain away the words I have spoken." 1
He then spoke of the obstacles and difficulties which attended
every great and public measure, which, he said, were suggest-
ed, nourished, and supported by that secret influence he had
mentioned, first by secret treachery, then by official influence,
and afterwards in public councils. ' A long train of these
practices,' said he, ' has at length unwillingly convinced me,
that there is something behind the Throne greater than the
King himself. As to the noble Duke, there was in his con-
duct, from the time of my being taken ill, a gradual deviation
from every thing that had been settled and agreed to by his
Grace, both as to measures and to men, till at last there were
not left two planks together of the ship which had been origi-
nally launched.' " *

Mr. Nichols, whose father was Archiater to George the
Second, says, "that, from the commencement of the reign of
George the Third, a struggle had existed between the King's
personal wishes and the opinions of his ostensible ministers ;
that the two first wishes, which he seems to have entertained,
were to break the power of the Pelham faction, and to restore
peace ; that the instrument which he employed to effec-
tuate his objects was unfortunately chosen ; that the Earl of Bute
was not qualified to be a minister ; " and he adds, " that from
the time of his removal we may date the establishment of the
double cabinet, that is, secret advisers, and ostensible ministers."
He says further, " that the King dismissed George Grenville
because he found him not sufficiently subservient to his views,
and Lord Rockingham because he repealed the stamp act ;
and that when the Duke of Grafton was appointed minister,
it was understood that he was to act under the guidance of
the Earl of Chatham. But soon after the establishment of
this ministry, and while Lord Chatham was sick and absent
from council, the King contrived to have the question of taxing

* From the London Museum and Almon's Anecdotes of Lord Chat-
ham.

340 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

the American colonies revived; and, by playing man against
man and faction against faction, he at length obtained his
wishes ; and the American colonies found themselves reduced
to the alternative of unconditional submission, or explicit and
avowed resistance." Mr. Nichols adds, " They chose the lat-
ter;" and "while the King was pursuing this object of
reviving the dispute with America, he seems to have employed
that maxim of the politician, Divide et impera, with much dex-
terity. The late Earl of Shelburne told a friend of mine,"
says Mr. Nichols, " that the King possessed one art beyond
any man he had ever known ; for that, by the familiarity of
his intercourse, he obtained your confidence, procured from
you your opinion of different public characters, and then avail-
ed himself of this knowledge to sow dissension."

How far this corresponds with a passage in a private letter
from John Wilkes to Junius, of September 12, 1771, is left
to the feelings and judgment of each reader ; viz. " Lord
Chatham said to me ten years ago, ****** \ s the falsest
hypocrite in Europe. I must hate the man as much as even
Junius can, for through this whole reign almost it has been
********* versus Wilkes. This conduct will probably
make it Wilkes versus ******** *." |

" It is understood," says Mr. Heron, " that if the Duke of
Grafton had remained faithful to Lord Chatham, had scorned
all political association equally with the Bedford party as with
those who called themselves the King's friends," the combi-
nation of the Pitt and Grenville with the JVewcastle and Rock-
ingham Whigs, had been, ere that time, triumphant ; and the
King would have been obliged to resign the reigns of his gov-
ernment into their hands, upon their own conditions. The

f I have seen these blanks filled up in print ; but do not choose to
reprint guess work, especially of a paragraph written by a man whose
folly led liim to set up a printing-press in his own house to print all the
proceedings of the administration against him, price one guinea! and
who, contrary to the advice of his best friends, reprinted all the forty-
Jive numbers of his North Briton.

NOTICE OF LORD AMHERST. 341

prevention of this was the great crime of the Duke of Grafton,
in the eyes of the Whigs. . And Mr. Heron adds, " This was

the CAUSE of JUNIUS'S ABHORRENCE of /i2OT." [NOTE to his

Fifty-fifth Letter.

Lord Amherst

Is the last personage we shall cite to prove the consimilarity
in opinion between Junius and Lord Chatham, respecting the
characters and conduct of men.

" Jeffery Amherst, the descendant of an old and most re-
spectable family iu the county of Kent, was born on the 29th
of January, 1717. At a very early age, he devoted himself
to the profession of arms. He received an ensign's commis-
sion in the guards when not more than fourteen years old.
At the age of twenty-four he was made aid-de-camp to General
Ligonier, and in that capacity was present at the battles of
Dettingen, Fontenoy, and Rocoux. After this he was ad-
mitted upon the staff of the Duke of Cumberland, and was
engaged in the fatal battles of Lafeld and Hastenbeck. In
the year 1756, he was appointed to command the fifteenth
regiment of foot,- and in two years more obtained the rank of
major-general. Mr. Pitt, ever attentive to the character of the
officers he employed, saw that the qualities of General Am-
herst rendered him a proper person to command the army in
North America. He was accordingly appointed, and the bril-
liant operations of the campaign amply confirmed ihe high
opinion entertained of him by Mr. Pitt. General Amherst,
although a firm disciplinarian, was ever the soldier's friend.
He was a man of strict economy, of a collected and temperate
mind, and in the whole of his conduct appears to have been
animated by a just sense of what was due to his country." *

* History of the Right Hon. William Pitt, End of Chatham, by the
Rev. Francis Thackeray, Vol. I. Sir Jeffery Amherst was the most
popular military officer ever sent from Britain into these colonies. I

342 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

Mr. Pitt, in a letter to General Amherst, of October 24,
1760, says, " I cannot sufficiently express to you the satis-
faction of his Majesty on the further successes of his arras un-
der your command ; " and closes with saying, " I cannot
conclude without adding my most hearty congratulations on
the great honor you have acquired, and assuring you of the
sincere part I shall take in every thing that can contribute to
the increase thereof." And in a subsequent letter he says,
" I have the further pleasure to acquaint you, that all ranks
and degrees of people here have unanimously testified their
sense of the many great services you have rendered your King
and country." Mr. Pitt was always very frugal in bestowing
high praises upon officers in his service.

The historian just quoted,* who is remarkably cautious of
imputing blame to men in very high stations, says, that " the
infirmities of Lord Chatham [in 1768] still prevented him
from emerging from retirement, and compelled him to submit,
in sullen submission, to many severe outrages upon his feelings
and his friendships." Among these he mentions an event
" which was," he says, " certainly calculated to wound the
high spirit of Lord Chatham. As a reward for the important
services performed by General Amherst, — [nothing less than the
reduction of Montreal and all Canada ; or, in a word, wresting
from the hands of France the whole of her power in North
America;] which services appeared still greater when contrast-
ed with the untoward events under General Braddock, Lord
Loudon, and General Abercrombie ; — for these brilliant deeds,
General Amherst was appointed Governor of Virginia, with
the privilege of residing in England, while his Lieutenant

well remember when the most frequent signs hung out at the inns,
taverns, and smaller houses of entertainment in America, were por-
traits of the Right Hon. TFilliam Pitt, the King of Prussia, and
General Jlmherst. One of General Wolfe remains in its original place,
at this day, in Newburyport, while the bust of William Pitt, presented
by Dr. Franklin, in the year 1770, adorns the spacious Library of
the University of Cambridge.
* Thackeray.

NOTICE OF LORD AMHERST. 343

dwelt in the < ancient dominion.' Mr. Pitt had communi-
cated these gracious marks of his sovereign's favor to the
General, who, during several years, had enjoyed them with-
out dispute. But disturhances," says the historian, " had
since arisen in America ; and it was deemed necessary by
Lord Hillsborough, the minister who had been recently made
for the new office of Secretary for the Colonies, that there
should be a resident Governor in Virginia. It might be sup-
posed, that one, so honorable and so disinterested as Sir Jeffery
Amherst had proved himself to be, would not oppose his own
accommodation to the welfare of his country, but would consent
to waive his claim of non-residence, and either repair to the
government, or, upon a just compensation, relinquish it to
another. Such a proposition was accordingly made to him by
the ministry [the Duke of Grafton's,] and at first he appeared
to acquiesce in the propriety of the measure, [because he
thought it might be for the good of the country.] Unfortu-
nately," says the historian, " he subsequently learned, that, be-
fore he himself had been consulted, his government had been
promised to Lord Botetourt. Indignant at such treatment,
he demanded an audience of his Majesty, and tendered the
resignation of his regiments."

" I have already expressed my astonishment," says Mr.
Thackeray, " that Lord Chatham should so long have con-
sented to form a part, even nominally, of an administration,
whose sentiments and proceedings were so opposite to his
own." — " Whatever were heretofore his motives for remaining
in office, the recent conduct of the ministry was so gross an
outrage upon his feelings, both as it regarded his public meas-
ures and his private friendships, that he now felt himself com-
pelled to resign." This had a special reference to the
ill treatment of General Amherst. Did Lord Chatham sit
quietly under this gross outrage of his feelings ? — If he did,
Junius did not.

In August, 17G8, a letter appeared in the Public Advertiser,
under the signature of Valerius, who, Mr. Woodfall the

344 concerning;junius and his letters.

younger assures us, was Junius himself. The writer say",
" Amidst the general indignation which has been excited by
the marked affront lately put upon Sir Jeffery Amherst, it is
odd to find people puzzling themselves about the motives
which have actuated administration in this extraordinary pro-
cedure. Nothing is more short and easy, than the solution of
this affected difficulty. They were ordered to act in this man-
ner. [By the boyish Duke of Grafton ? — No, — by his master.']
" The public knows, and can know, no other reason. The
ministry know, and desire to know, no other reason. They
have not the slightest quarrel with Sir Jeffery Amherst. They
have not the most trivial regard for Lord Botetourt. Some
of them are known even to hate his Lordship; the rest are
scarcely acquainted with him ; but they have received the or-
der, and that is enough for them. Their whole political sys-
tem is wrapped up in one short maxim, —

" My author and disposer 1 what tliou bidst
Unargued I obey ! " *

Leaving Valerius, alias Junius, for a moment, let us say
a few words on the government of Virginia.

The original idea appears to have been that of a Prefect or
Governor-General of the Colonies ; for Virginia was the
original name of an immense region, including nearly all the
British claims in America. Whether Virginia, so called by
the English in honor of their Virgin Queen, was a favorite ter-
ritory in the eyes of Lord Chatham, or whether he had any
particular views in wishing to place his favorite General there,
we are not prepared to say ; and we only guess, that he may
have wished to balance the colonial, democratical influence be-
tween New England and Virginia, should ever one or the oth-
er incline to independency. The first settlers of Virginia ap-
pear to have brought over with them as much of the Eng-
lish spirit of freedom as our forefathers in New-England,
with all their boasted Puritanism, making due allowance for

* Milton.

NOTICE OF LORD AMHERST. 345

the former as Episcopalians. The settlers of Virginia were
authorized, by their charters, to govern themselves accord-
ing to their own discretion. They were allowed to coin
money, and to possess all the liberties and franchises of na-
tive Britons. The civil power was, at the beginning, de-
puted to a council appointed by the crown. They soon,
however, elected a House of Representatives or House of
Burgesses, which continued down to the period of our na-
tional independency. But they were not watched and over-
looked by the jealous eye of the mother-country, as we in
New England were. The powers, civil and ecclesiastical, had
a better opinion of the obedience of Roman Catholics, and
their first cousins, the English Episcopalians ; for Virginia, in-
cluding the territory of Maryland, was settled by Episcopalians
and Roman Catholics, both, in a degree, slaves by system,
compared with the almost Indian freedom of the New England
Independents, who were disposed to acknowledge no other
Sovereign than King Jesus. That detached portion of Vir-
ginia, called Maryland, had a charter from King Charles the
First, with more unlimited powers than even the original do-
minion. It expressly stated, that they should be free from all
impositions of taxes and duties by Parliament. They actually
were allowed to exercise, under a Roman Catholic Governor,
all the high powers of a sovereign state. Virginia possessed
as much of the essential privileges of independence as Mas-
sachusetts, if not more. Their colonial covenants partook
more of treaties between two separate powers, than charters
granted by a sovereign state to a dependent colony. They
wisely enjoyed their freedom without boasting of it, or talking
too much about it. They, however, unfortunately admitted
the slavery of the Africans, in which they were encouraged by
the mother country, while all New England wisely preserved
herself free from it.

346 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

After George the Third came to the crown, when John
Stuart, Earl of Bute, Lord Mansfield, Lord Granville,*
Archbishop Seeker, and the followers of the Princess Dowager
of Wales, influenced the councils of the young monarch, ft
seemed voted and resolved in* the interior cahinet, to curtail
the exercise of self-government hy the colonists, which they
had left their native land to enjoy, and to reduce them to mere
corporation privileges. A new system of governing America
was contemplated immediately after the peace, in which rais-
ing a revenue by internal taxation was the prominent feature ;
and this was in addition to that external taxation, which the
Americans already paid under the name of regulations of
trade, and to which they had pretty cheerfully submitted for
the benefit of the whole empire, as a contribution for their pri-
vate security and public safety ; and they adhered to it with
far less smuggling than is practised in the ports of Great
Britain. With this plan in view, it was at once foreseen, that
General Sir JefTery Amherst, the 61 eve of Pitt, was not the
man for their purpose. This Butean system (for so we think
we have reason to designate the suggestions of the irresponsible
cabinet, under which the ostensible administration of the obse-
quious Duke of Grafton acted) created a new office, a Secre-
taryship of State for the American Department, to which sta-
tion the Earl of Hillsborough was appointed ; and General
Amherst was dismissed from his government of Virginia with so
little ceremony, as to merit, according to Junius, the name of
insult, and Lord Botetourt appointed in his place.

Lord Hillsborough was' a man of few and .light talents in
the opinion of Junius, who, under the signature of Lucius,
says, that his Lordship is civil and polite ; that few men under-
stand the little morals better, or observe the great ones less ;
that he can bow and smile in an honest man's face, while he
picks his pocket. " These are the virtues of a court, in which

* We caution the young American reader not to mistake Granville
for Grenville. The former was originally Lord Carteret, very honor-
ably mentioned, if not flattered, by Dean Swift, in 1730.

NOTICE OF LORD AMHERST. 347

your education," says Junius, " has not been neglected. In
any other school you might have learned, that simplicity and
integrity are worth them all. Sir Jeffery Amherst was fighting
the battles of his country, while you, my Lord, the darling
child of prudence and urbanity, were practising the generous
arts of a courtier, and securing an honorable interest, in the an-
te-chamber of a favorite. " As a man of abilities for pub-
lic business, your first experiment has been unfortunate.
Your circular letter to the American governors, both for
matter and composition, is a performance which a school-
boy ought to blush for." — " Instead of clear, precise instruc-
tions, adapted to the temper, circumstances, and interests of
the several provinces, wherein you might have shown your
political abilities as well as your knowledge of that country, —
what have you done ? " Yet the ministerial writers of that
day asserted, that Lord Hillsborough's great abilities were
brought into public office to correct the blunders of Pitt's
administration I

The answer of the Assembly of Massachusetts to Lord Hills-
borough's circular was written entirely by Samuel Adams.
Had we never seen the printed remarks of Junius on his
Lordship's Letter to the American Governors, we might have
been excused for pronouncing one as the production of a boy,
and the other that of an able, wise, and temperate man. This
reply to the new-formed Secretary of State for America, to-
gether with the circular addressed to the Sister Colonies from
the same pen, struck out a spark that set every Province in a
blaze of patriotism, and produced, as usual, effects directly
contrary to what were intended and predicted by the British
ministry.

As to Lord Botetourt, Junius describes him as a character
very different from that of Amherst, whom he supplanted. He
was one of the household troops, connected in office with the
palace, being sword-bearer to his Majesty ; previously to which
he had ruined himself by gambling and extravagance. If this

348 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

be the true character of that nobleman, what a contrast to that
of Lord Amherst .*

Such a man and such an officer as General Amherst, pa-
tronized so particularly by Lord Chatham, would have been
the most proper person for a Governor-General of America,
according to the British notions of governing us. We discover
the political opinion of Junius from the following passage of his
Letter, addressed to the Printer of the Public Advertiser,
signed Atticus. " But I see the spirit which has gone abroad
through the colonies, and I know what consequences that spirit
must and will produce. If it be determined to enforce the au-
thority of the legislature, the event will be uncertain ; but if we
yield to the pretensions of America, there is no further doubt
about the matter. From that moment they become an inde-
pendent people ; they open their trade with the rest of the
world, and England is undone.

" In these circumstances, calamitous as they are, I yet think
the uniform direction of a great and able minister might do
much. His earliest care, I am persuaded, would be to pro-
vide a fund to support the first alarm and expense of a rup-
ture with France. If prepared to meet a war, he might per-
haps avoid it. His next object would be to form a plan of
agreement ivith the colonies. He would consent to yield some
ground to the Americans, if it were possible to receive a secu-
■ rity from them, that they never would advance beyond a

LINE THEN DRAWN, UPON CONDITIONS MUTUALLY AGREED ON.

By an equitable offer of this kind, he would certainly unite this
country in the support of his measures ; and lam persuaded
he would have the reasonable part of the Americans on his
side."f

* General Amherst was created a Peer in May, 1776. He was
Commander in Chief of the armies of Great Britain several years, and
Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance ; was made a Field-Marshal in
July, 1796 ; and died at Montreal, his seat in Kent, August 3, 1797.

f Letter XLV. October 6, 1768, Atticus. Miscellaneous.

NOTICE OF LORD AMHERST. 349

I would here ask if this is not the precise doctrine which was
maintained by Lord Chatham respecting America, and for
which he contended against the Duke of Richmond to the
last moment of his political existence ?

The doctrine is explicitly this ; Tax yourselves, govern your-
selves, wear an union flag ; and give us the preference in every-
thing, and rely oiv the protection of our invincible navy, and
never think of building one of your own.

" Henceforth let Whig and Tory cease,
And turn all party rage to peace ;
Rouse and revive our ancient glory,
Unite and drive the world before ye."

This was the feeling of the great body of Whigs on both
sides of the Atlantic. A few only saw farther.

It is worse than labor lost, to rely on certain books called
histories of England, — histories of the reign of George the
Third, from the year 1762 to the term when peace was con-
cluded with the United States. Each party exaggerates, or
extenuates, or else omits the real state of facts, or places a
real fact with its wrong end foremost, so as to appear what
it is not. During the time specified, most truth is to be
collected from anonymous writers. The Britons boast of
their freedom of speech and freedom of the press; but their
historians do not, half the time, speak what they know to
be true of courts and crowned heads. Whether this be
from fear of the law's steel trap, or merely the policy of the
trade, we are too far off to determine. But it is a fact,
that we have more exact and fearless • accounts in print of i
the character and conduct of French Kings, Queens, Prin-
cesses, and their Courts, than of the Kings, Queens, Princess-
es, and Courts of the British nation ; and far less backward-
ness in speaking of their follies and crimes. How comes this?
Have the Britons more delicacy and gallantry than the French,
or less liberty ? The personal character and conduct of George
the Third is less known and diffused throughout the island of
Great Britain than throughout America. We are at such a

350 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

happy distance that we can take into view a larger landscape,
and contemplate it with perfect composure, without fear of of-
fending any body, as we do when judging of the history of an-
cient Greece and Rome. So we can judge of the means taken
to destroy the richest fruits of the Herculean labors of Lord
Chatham ; like the workings of the worm in the bottoms of
ships, operating destruction silently and fatally under the sur-
face.

However familiar in conversation, George the Third pre-
served remarkable state in some other matters. No court in
Europe had so many officers, so many footmen of high rank.
Think, republicans ! of noblemen, even aged Peers, waiting
upon a young monarch, standing behind his chair, serving at
his toilet, and dressing him ; and this degradation for money,
for titles, ribbons, stars, so called, and offices of no business ;
or, to express it all in one word, for Nobility ! * It is no
wonder that Junius was sarcastic, Chatham impatient, fretful,
and, at times, contemptuous, in his intercourse with the privi-
leged order, when sprigs of it were preferred before such char-
acters as General Amherst, whose ill treatment is discussed in
Letters, entitled Miscellaneous, between the Numbers XXX.
and XLIV. in the younger Woodfall's edition of Junius.
They express not merely indignation but resentment. They
hint that the manner of the affront was intended as a back-hand-
ed blow at Lord Chatham. Sir Jeffery Amherst, a soldier from
infancy, and a very popular general, had carried his own fame
and that of Pitt's through every town and village of Great
Britain, Ireland, and America, — countries where public opin-
ion bears on its strong wings every thing good or evil.

The Right Hon. Henry Bilson Legge had talents and char-
acter which made him a most valuable adjunct to Lord Chat-
ham. The baleful influence, of which that nobleman com-
plained, was exerted to pull this prop from under him. Hence
we conceive the indignation of Junius at his dismission, and

* See, on this head, Horace Walpole, and Lemuel Gulliver's Travels
in Lilliput.

NOTICE OF LORD AMHERST. 351

the almost rage of the same writer at the attempt to pull away
the other substantial prop of Chatham's fame, — the popular
general. He says of it, " A government shameless or ill ad-
vised enough to treat with disregard the obligation due to pub-
lic services, not only sets a most pernicious example to its sub-
jects, but does a flagrant injury to society. Reflections, such
as these, crowded upon my mind the moment 1 heard that the
late commander-in-chief had been dismissed, without ceremo-
ny, from his government of Virginia. I was grieved to see
such a man so treated ; but when I considered this step as an
omen of the real resolution of the ministry with respect to
America, I forgot, as he himself will do, the "private injury,
and lamented nothing but the public misfortune."

Lord Chatham doubtless saw, in prospective, the course of
things in Old England and in New, and dreaded the conse-
quences ; dreaded a solution of continuity in the politics of the
mother country and her offspring. This was a period of anx-
ious solicitude with wise men on both sides of the Atlantic. The
celebrated Horace Walpole, writing to his kinsman, General
Conway, about that time, says, " The long expected sloop is
arrived at last, and is indeed a man of war ! The general
Congress have voted (1.) A non-importation. (2.) A non-
exportation. And (3.) A non-consumption. The Americans,
at least, have acted like men, gone to the bottom at once, and
set the whole upon the whole. Our conduct has been that of
pert children ; we have thrown a pebble at a mastiff; and are
surprised it was not frightened. Now we must be worried by
it, or must kill the guardian of the house, which will be plun-
dered the moment little master has nothing but the old nurse
to defend it."

It was well that General Amherst was not sent out Prefect to
this country, where Lord Botetourt met little else than mortifi-
cation. Matters had proceeded too far, for even the prudent
and popular Sir Jeffery Amherst to have managed with satis-
faction to himself and to America. Patrick Henry in the
South, and Samuel Adams in the JVort h, had fixed their steady

352 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

eyes on Independency ; and nothing short of it could pacify
those political seers and the few, who, at that early period, felt
like them upon the great question of self-government. Not
long after the period to which I refer, their sentiments became
general ; when every thing about us, even the face and course
of nature, the still small voice of religion, — all, — all were con-
strued into so many calls, more or less loud, for a separation
of vast America from the small island of Britain.

While w T ar and vengeance were denounced by the ministry
against the rebellious people of Massachusetts, the Governor
of Virginia was instructed to use the gentlest promises of kind
relief and satisfaction towards the Southern Colonists. Ac-
cordingly, Lord Botetourt says to the Assembly of Virginia,
in May, 1769, " I think myself peculiarly fortunate to be able
to inform you, by a letter from the Earl of Hillsborough, that
his Majesty's present administration have at no time entertained
a design to propose to Parliament to lay any further taxes
upon America for the purpose of raising a revenue, and that
it is their intention to propose, in the next session of Parlia-
ment to take off the duties upon glass, paper, and colors, upon
consideration of such duties having been paid contrary to the
true principles of commerce."

In answer to the speech of the royal Governor to the House
of Burgesses, they say to him, " We have examined it [the
conciliatory proposition] minutely ; we have viewed it in every
point of light in which we are able to place it, and with pain
and disappointment we must ultimately declare, it only changes
the form of oppression without lightening the burden." And,
after saying that " Lord Chatham's bill on the one hand, and
the terms of the Congress on the other, would have formed a
basij for negotiation, which a spirit of accommodation, on both
sides, might perhaps have reconciled," they close with these
impressive words. " We have decently remonstrated with Par-
liament ; they have added new injuries to the old. We have
wearied our King with supplications ; he has not deigned to
answer us. We have appealed to the native honor and justice

CONSPIRATION OF THE COLONIES. 353

of the British nation ; their efforts in our favor have been
hitherto ineffectual. What then is to be done ? That we com-
mit ourselves to the even-handed justice of that Being who
doeth no wrong ; earnestly beseeching Him to illuminate the
councils, and prosper the endeavours of those to whom Ameri-
ca hath confided her hopes, that, through their wise direction,
we may again see re-united the blessings of liberty and proper-
ty, and the most permanent harmony with Great-Britain."
After expressing loyalty to the King and amity to the mother
country, they adjourned. But four days after, they, in imita-
tion of the Assembly of Massachusetts when they constituted
their Provincial Congress, formed themselves into a Conven-
tion of Delegates to supply the place of the House of Bur-
gesses, and went on in their legislative duties in the same form
and order, making their parliamentary business a continuation,
rather than a revolution of government.

Maryland, Virginia's offspring, followed her example ; and
amongst other spirited resolves, their convention voted unani-
mously, that " We do unite as one band, and solemnly pledge
ourselves to each other and to America, that we will, to the
utmost of our power, support the present opposition carrying
on, as well by arms as the continental association restraining
our commerce." They moreover voted to enroll forty com-
panies of " minute-men" of every effective freeman between
sixteen and fifty, practising physicians and those persons who,
from their religious principles, cannot bear arms in any case,
excepted." Thus was war lit up at both ends of the United
Colonies, which neither Chatham nor Amherst could have
averted, so long as the wretched policy of Britain was that of
playing one colony against the other, on the imbecile maxim of
Divide and conquer.

CHAPTER XII.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF JUNIUs's LETTERS.

In the foregoing chapter we have inserted notices or sketch-
es of those distinguished persons who appear prominent in the
volumes of Junius, omitting Sir William Draper, as a mere
military character, incidentally brought before the public, and
little connected with the design of this inquiry. Those per-
sonages were Lord Camden, Lord Mansfield, Henry Fox,
Lord Holland, the Duke of Bedford, Duke of Grafton, and
General. Lord Amherst.

We have overcome our reluctance to multiply pages, from
a persuasion that we are bound to show, on our hypothe-
sis, how Lord Chatham came to feel affinity, or affiliation, with
Lord Camden ; and how, also, repulsion as it regarded Lord
Chief Justice Mansfield ; and that the same affinity and repul-
sion pervade likewise the pages of Junius. We deemed it of
some importance to dwell a little upon the mixed feelings of
Lord Chatham and of Junius towards Lord Holland, a man
of heterogenous composition, superinduced on a firm and hon-
orable character. It was impossible to skip over the antipathy
between Junius and the Duke of Bedford, Lord Bute's repre-
sentative in arranging the articles of the peace at the court
of Versailles ; he who tried to demolish the triumphal arch
which Fame had erected, out of French materials, to the
honor of Pitt, Earl of Chatham.

Not having, at first view, a clear sight of the cause which
produced the remarkable vituperation of Junius towards the
Duke of Grafton, we were compelled to bestow more time and
attention upon that political camelion, than the subject was
really worth, unless it were to confirm the notion, prevalent in
this country, that George the Third was in reality his own min-
ister from 1762 to the peace with these United States

RESPECT IN AMERICA FOR PITT AND AMHERST. 355

We dwell with more interest on the article respecting Gene-
ral Amherst, as a link in the chain of our own history, and as
exhibiting instances of abounding cunning and deficient wis-
dom in the efforts of the crown to force America to submit to
her arbitrary system of internal taxation. I say internal, in
contradistinction to the external contribution, connected with
that superintendence which regulates and controls trade and
navigation ; the one being private, individual, and sacred ; the
other extended, and of complicated consideration, reaching as
far as ships can sail or winds can blow. The majority of Par-
liament, without confining the remark to the country gentle-
men, never appeared to us to understand this vital distinction.

Americans experience a pleasant consociation of ideas, when-
ever the names of Sir Jeffery Amherst and William Pitt * are
mentioned. They recall to mind a happy period in our colo-
nial history, as it regards those eminent characters, and bring
up the pleasant idea of confidential friendship, entwining the
palm of the soldier with the laurel of the statesman.

That Junius should write a dozen Letters, under various
signatures, expressive of his disgust at the treatment of General
Amherst, and that the British public generally knew that treat-
ment was a backhanded stroke at Lord Chatham, are facts of no
small importance in establishing our idea of the authorship of
Junius. That disinterested nobleman bore the abuse in sullen
silence as it regarded individuals ; but he denounced, in the

* We recollect seventeen towns in the United States, named in
honor of Pitt. One built on the site of old Fort Pitt, at the confluence
of the Alleghany and Monongahela, forming the Ohio ; now the Bir-
mingham of America, in which are a national arsenal and very exten-
sive armory. This flourishing town is called Pittsburg. Another of
the same name in the county of Chatham, North Carolina. In New
Hampshire and Massachusetts, several called Pittsjield, Pittston, Pitts-
ville. Pitisford, &c. In New Hampshire is a flourishing town called
Amherst ; in Massachusetts another with a college, called after the
General ; one or more in the State of New York, and two in Virginia,
besides certain mineral springs, bearing the name of Amherst. These
are tokens of regard and gratitude, more lasting than statues, and
more in character than graven images.

356 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

strongest terms, the political conduct of his enemies. " Were
I disposed," said he in the House of Lords, wherr he offered
his bill for conciliation with America, " to pursue this theme
to the extent that truth would bear me out in, I could demon-
strate, that the whole of your political conduct has been one
continued series of weakness, temerity, despotism, incapacity,
and corruption. On reconsideration, I must allow you one
merit, a strict attention to your interests ; in that view you ap-
pear sound statesmen and able politicians. You well knew, if
the present measure should prevail, that you must instantly re-
linquish your places. I doubt much whether you will be able
to keep them on any terms ; but sure I am, such are your well
known characters and abilities, that any plan of reconciliation,
however moderate, wise, and feasible, must fail in your hands.
Such, then, being your precarious situations, who would won-
der that you can put a negative on any measure which must an-
nihilate your power, deprive you of your emoluments, and at
once reduce you to that state of insignificance, for which God
and nature designed you ? " *

Lord Chatham gave himself a respite from all kinds of busi-
ness in the year 1769. He attended Parliament in 1770 ;
but not in 1771, 1772, and 1773 ; but in the year 1774 the
affairs of America brought him forward again. In May, 1777,
he re-appeared, and made one more effort to conciliate the per-
turbed spirits on both sides of the Atlantic, when he said,

" My Lords, — This is a flying moment ; perhaps but six
weeks left to arrest the dangers that surround us. The gath-
ering storm may break ; it has already opened, and in part
burst. It is difficult for government, after all that has passed,
to shake hands with defiers of the King, defiers of the Parlia-
ment, defiers of the people. I am a defier of nobody ; but if
an end is not put to this war, there is an end of this country.

* This tremendous philippic against the whole administration was
chiefly directed to Lord Sandwich, who insisted that any concession to
America was an abandonment of the cause of government, in which
he was followed by the Duke of Grafton and Lord Hillsborough.

CHATHAM'S ATTEMPTS AT CONCILIATION. 357

I do not trust my judgment in my present state of health ; this
is the judgment of my better days ; the result of forty years'
attention to America. They are rebels ; but what are they
rebels for ? Surely not for defending their unquestionable
rights ! What have these rebels done heretofore ? I remem-
ber when they raised four regiments on their own bottom, and
took Louisburg from the veteran troops of France.* But
their excesses have been great. I do not mean to be their
panegyrist ; but must observe, in extenuation, the erroneous
and infatuated councils which have prevailed ; — the door to
mercy and to justice has been shut against them. But they
may still be taken up upon the grounds of their former sub-
mission. [Referring to their petition.] I state to you the im-
portance of America ; it is a double market ; the market of
consumption and the market of supply. This double market
for millions with naval stores, you are giving to your hereditary
rival.

" America has carried you through former wars, and will
carry you to your death if you don't take things in time. You
have ransacked every corner of Lower Saxony ; but forty
thousand German boors never can conquer ten times the num-
ber of British freemen ; they may ravage ; they cannot con-
quer. But you will conquer, you say ! Why, what would
you conquer ? The map of America. I am ready to meet
any general officer on the subject (looking at Lord Amherst.)
What will you do out of the protection of your fleet ? In the
winter, if together, they are starved ; and if dispersed, they
are taken off in detail. I am experienced in spring hopes and
vernal promises ; I know what ministers throw out ; but at
last will come your equinoctial disappointment. [When Lord
Chatham uttered this ominous speech, Burgoyne's army was
embarking for America. I remember that new maps of its route,
just from the press, were as plenty in London, in the hands of

* The British historians generally pass over in silence this fact so
honorable to America, particularly to New England, and more par-
ticularly to Boston.

358 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

American refugees, as pamphlets. They talked of little else
than driving all before them triumphantly from the Lakes to
Boston. But, ere the equinoctial season was passed, that well-
appointed army laid down their arms at Saratoga, and surren-
dered to the American yeomanry !]

" If ministers are founded," continues Lord Chatham, " in
saying there is no sort of treaty with France, there is still a
moment left ; the point of honor is still safe. France must be
as self-destroying as England, to make a treaty while you are
giving her America at the expense of twelve millions a year.
The intercourse has produced every thing to France ; and
England, old England, must pay for all. I have, at different
times, made different propositions, adapted to the circum-
stances in which they were offered. The plan contained in
the former bill is now impracticable ; the present motion will
tell you where you are, and what you have now to depend
upon."

His motion for conciliation was negatived by a very large
majority.

Our first intention was to bring to probate the last will
and testament of Junius only, as witnessed by his printer,
Henry Sampson Woodfall, being those Letters prepared by
himself for the press. But we must now include a few others,
recognised by him in his private correspondence with Mr.
Woodfall, — some without signature and some with, — as Atii-
cus, Valerius, Lucius, Brutus, Domitian, Anti-Fox, — all bear-
ing indubitable marks of the same pen ; while we reject others
as too mean in phraseology and epithet to spring from the same
tasteful author. Junius saying to his printer, " You know I
do not, nor have I time to give an equal care to them all," is
not a sufficient excuse for the coarseness and leanness of some
of the essays scraped together under the head of Miscellaneous
Letters. When Junius predicted that posterity would read
his writings, he could not have meant, that every scrap and ex-
crescence of ill humor, unwisely exhibited to the eye on paper
when he was out of conceit with himself and with the city poli-

HIS ZEAL FOR CONCILIATION. 359

ticians, instead of being immediately buried, should be left ex-
posed above ground. It is a pity that a scavenger had not
followed Dean Swift's remains, before editors and printers
scrambled for his exuvice ; and so of some later writers.

The power of Junius in maintaining his invisibility, in spite
of the most prying curiosity when winged with vengeance, bor-
ders on the wonderful, considering that Britain had a King at
that time remarkable for inquisitivcness, and for paying " rather
too much attention to the sins of his neighbours," * while he
had a double cabinet, over which presided curiosity personi-
fied. Yet all combined was, it seems, unable to detect that
political Sagittarius, who, fed with lion's marrow, instruct-
ed Hercules how to rid the world of its plagues. Still he
maintained his sway ; none so high but was reached by his
arrows, nor so low as to escape his tomahawk ; and yet he re-
mained, like the ancient Hercules, visible only by the effects of
his labors. Yet our modern Hero differed from the heathen,
seeing he aimed not always to pierce the vitals, but to heal
and restore. Hence this salutiferous reformer fingered every
sore, probed deep every ulcer through all its sinuosities, and
exposed to view each livid spot of mortification in the body
politic, without appearing affected by the contortions, wry faces,
or agony of the patient. It is neither just nor generous to con-
sider Junius, as many do, a malignant, supernal archer, shoot-
ing barbed arrows from impenetrable coverts, more like the
demon of destruction than a skilful political chirurgeon, whose
object was to save by " infusing a portion of new health into
the constitution to enable it to bear its infirmities," or to restore
it to its pristine vigor, as at the revolution in 1688.

To rouse up an indolent and sickly people to a sense of
their condition, and to induce them to make use of proffered
remedies, required the wisdom of a sage and the nice hand of a
master. In some countries and periods of the world, before
printing gave wings to literature, Prophets and Apostles were

* Earl Waldegrave, Governor to George the Third, when Prince of

Wales.

3G0 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

sent to reclaim backsliding kings and a perverse people. But
the denunciations of the one, and the exhortations of the other,
were confined to narrow bounds, circumscribed to little more
than the compass of the human voice ; whereas now the Press,
under the guardianship of Liberty, writes the fearful denuncia-
tions on the interior of palaces and castles, and its triumph has
never been so great as when that most potent engine was worked
by the hand of an invisible agent. The histories of honorable
deceptions, called stratagems of war, from Hannibal to Wash-
ington, from Washington to Napoleon, prove, that they depend-
ed altogether on the superior genius of the commander. Infi-
nite as the means of deception are, in holding up one thing while
intending another, the object is security and efficacy. Strata-
gems in war are for an hour, a day, and rarely for months ;
but Junius attacked the highest and most powerful characters
in the realm, the sacred institutions of the law, and the law-
makers, under a mask, and within the circle of a single city,
during the long space of three years, when none, nor all, could
strip him of his visor, nor even trace the footsteps of the letter-
carrier from the writer's dwelling to the printer's, and from the
printer back again to the study of the writer. My surprise in-
creases at every review of this subject. We have nothing like
it in history. The reverend Doctor Gauden deceived the
British public in his Icon Basilike, by telling an absolute false-
hood ; yet Charles the Second rewarded him with a mitre, for
imposing on the world the counterfeit lucubrations of his own
brain for the pious effusions of his unhappy father.

Besides the composition, I have ever considered the tran-
scription and transmission of the Letters, for three years, with-
out detection, to be the most mysterious and puzzling circum-
stances in the history of the ghost of Junius Brutus. None
but a man of the first-rate powers and first-rate means could
have carried his design, as Junius did, into complete effect.

We have fixed the authorship of the Letters on the Earl of
Chatham, and have rendered it highly probable by the paral-
lel passages from his speeches, laid side by side with corre-

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 361

sponding passages from the Letters. We have shown the mu-
tual attachment between Chatham and Camden, as well as be-
tween Junius and this nobleman, by recording the unmingled
approbation of him by both. We have recalled to the reader's
mind the consimilarity of sentiment, expressed by Junius and by
Lord Chatham, as to the great learning and extraordinary abili-
ties of Lord Mansfield ; and we have pointed out the same de-
gree of repulsion in both. We have declared, that no public
character had such strong reasons for indignation and resent-
ment towards the Duke of Bedford as had Lord Chatham ;
for when the Duke signed the articles of the peace, he put a
match to the combustibles, that had been three years collecting
around the monument which Fame had erected to Pitt's glory.
We have exposed the chief reasons of the contempt of Ju-
nius for that sham minister, the Duke of Grafton, but we
do not believe he was so had, or so weak a man, as he is
represented by that violent writer.

We ask the reader's attention to the anecdotes of General
Lord Amherst * and request him to call to mind the history of
the wars and conquests in America from 1758 to 1761, and
the narrative of the dismission of Sir Jeffery Amherst from
his government of Virginia, together with the creation of a
third Secretary of Slate, specially made for the subjugation
of America. Does not this concatenation of facts corrobo-
rate, if not substantiate our idea, and identify Junius with
Chatham ?

Let us return to our rallying point, and see if our great
Statesman had qualities and faculties needful for such a delicate
task as writing audacious and terrific truths on the interior
walls of palaces. The North Briton says of him, " The
sight of Pitt's mind was infinite. His schemes were to af-
fect, not England, not the present age only, but Europe
and posterity. Wonderful were the means by which those

* The present Earl, son of the General, is named William Pitt Am-
herst

362 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

schemes were accomplished ; — always seasonable and always
adequate." *

He had been, from early life, a very active member of the
House of Commons, Paymaster-general, and Secretary of
State. When Prime Minister he retained the Secretaryship,
and, what was very extraordinary indeed, he was in effect, and
to all purposes, the Board of Admiralty within himself; having
stipulated with George the Second, that he should engross the
correspondence with the officers of the fleet abroad and at
home, which heretofore appertained to the board at large, and
that his orders and instructions should be signed by the Lords
of the Admiralty without their knowing what they signed.
Napoleon himself had hardly more unfettered power. Hence
it was, that promptness, nay, rapidity, marked all his measures.
Quick and fiery in his temper, he was yet patient when he di-
rected his mind to investigation ; and then he adopted the
calm and deliberate steps of the mathematician in search
of truth, which, when found, he proclaimed in the thun-
ders of oratory, and dazzling flashes of elocution. Thus he
stood before the collective nation an object of the highest re-
spect, and of dread to its enemies. It is to this extraordinary
man we attribute the authorship of the Letters of Junius, — a
man, of whom Earl Waldegrave (who did not love him) says,
" He has the finest genius, improved by study, and all the
ornamental part of classical learning. He has a peculiar clear-
ness and facility of expression ; and has an eye as significant
as his words. He is not always a fair or conclusive reasoner,
but commands the passions with sovereign authority ; and to
inflame or captivate a popular assembly is a consummate ora-
tor. He has courage of every sort, cool or impetuous, active
or deliberate. At present he is the guide and champion of the
people. He is imperious, violent, and implacable ; impatient
even of the slightest contradiction ; and, under the mask of
patriotism, has the despotic spirit of a tyrant.

* The JVorth Briton was written in Numbers, like the Spectator, by
various hands.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 363

" However, though his political sins are black and dangerous,
his private character is irreproachable ; he is incapable of a
treacherous or ungenerous action ; and in the common offices
of life is justly esteemed a man of veracity and a man of honor.

" He mixes little in company, confining his society to a
small juncto of his relations, with a few obsequious friends, who
consult him as an oracle, admire his superior understanding,
and never presume to have an opinion of their own.*

" This separation from the world is not entirely owing to
pride, or an unsociable temper ; as it proceeds partly from bad
health and a weak constitution. But he may find it an im-
passable barrier in the road of ambition ; for though the mob
can sometimes raise a minister, he must be supported by per-
sons of higher rank, who may be mean enough in some par-
ticulars, yet will not be the patient followers of any man who
despises their homage and avoids their solicitations. Besides,
it is a common observation, that men of plain sense and cool
resolution have more useful talents, and are better qualified for
public business, than the man of the finest parts, who wants
temper, judgment, and the knowledge of mankind. Even par-
liamentary abilities may be too highly rated ; for between the
man of eloquence and the sagacious statesman there is a wide
interval."

We set a high value on this character of Mr. Pitt writ-
ten by a contemporary, no less eminent than Earl Walde-
grave, whose grandmother was daughter of James the Second;
an accomplished scholar and philosopher ; and selected by
George the Second to be governor of his grandson, afterwards
George the Third. He was averse to the post, and said to
the aged monarch, " Sire, I am too young to govern, and too
old to be governed." But he was constrained to submit ; and
found, as he feared, that he could not acquire the confidence
of his pupil or of his pupiVs mother.

* Except his sister, Mrs. Annt Pitt.

364 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

Notwithstanding the slight exceptions scattered here and
there in the character of Mr. Pitt, Lord Waldegrave adds what
would seem to sweep them all away. " From a cornet of horse,
then his only subsistence, in less than twenty years he has
raised himself to be first minister, and the most powerful sub-
ject in this country.'''' " The masterly characteristics by Lord
Waldegrave were manifestly intended," says his biographer,
" for posterity ; " and his admirable Memoirs look like it.*

Such a man was Lord Chatham in the opinion of friends
and foes. Yet ambidextrous as he was, he could never have
written, and prepared for the press, the Letters in question,
without the aid and assistance of some eye, brain, and hand,
beside his own. It is impossible he could have effected the
task alone. Help he must have had ; confidence he must
have secured. But of what sort? The help could not have
been derived from hired people ; from any pensioned scribe,
who might ever be detached from his employer by disgust,
harsh treatment, or neglect. I cannot admit for a moment,
that his amanuensis could be bound to absolute secrecy, and
such a secret too, by any chain, either iron or gold. That is
but pseudo-confidence which can be bought ; for whatever can
be bought may be sold. Burke's amanuensis betrayed him.
Junius's never. His must have been that safe and faithful
scribe to be found only in a faithful bosom friend, — that pearl
of great price, so rare and so valuable. The mere surmise
will lead us to a nearer view of the personage so often men-
tioned. Starting with this potulatum of a bosom friend, with
caution and diffidence we approach the subject ; yet not with-
out a hope and firm belief, that we shall catch a glimpse of
that great and substantial blessing.

* Earl Waldegrave died of small-pox in March, 1763. Without the
polish or servile manners of a court, this nobleman was greatly esteem-
ed for his probity, benevolence, and literary acquirements. The Duke
of Cumberland, son of George the Second, said, that, to his knowledge,
death itself would have been more welcome to Lord Waldegrave, than
any union with Lord Bute or Mr. Fox. He rejected all offers of em-
ployment under the young King.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 365

The indispensably requisite amanuensis, in the delicate busi-
ness before us, — the partner in the vital secret, could have been
none else than another self; and may, if rightly considered, veri-
fy the assertion of Junius, when he said, " / am the sole de-
pository of my own secret." Indeed it is clear, that he meant it
should be understood in a qualified sense, from what immedi-
ately precedes it, viz. " If I am a vain man, my gratification
lies within a narrow circle." The term itself has here a plu-
ral meaning, intimating, what could not be otherwise, that there
were some ones to whom the secret was known. This idea
is confirmed by a trifling anecdote. An idle letter (to Ju-
nta), written in a spirt of levity, according not altogether
with the serious and dignified character of Junius, he wished
therefore to obliterate ; and he writes to Mr. Wood fall, " It
was written against my own opinion. The truth is, there are
people about me, whom I wish not to contradict, and who woxdd
rather see Junius in the papers, ever so improperly, than not
at all."

The important question is, who was the faithful bosom
friend, or the confidential friends, forming that narrow circled
Throughout this goodly and wondrous frame of nature, of
which we ourselves make a part, every generating thing is sent
forth in pairs. No one thing stands alone. There is indeed
unity, but oneness has no existence this side the eternal world.
I leave to the feeling and sagacity of each reader, whether the
first impression on his or her mind, was not that the persons about
Junius, whom he wished not to contradict, were Women ; as-
suming, as we do, that Chatham was the man. Name or
imagine the mortal man, if you can, whom William Pitt would
hesitate to contradict, if he urged any thing against his opin-
ion. Inflexible in his own will, and stubborn as a rock with
men, that nobleman was, from all accounts, a pliant domestic
man. But who could bend the Statesman ? We shall relate
what we have learned concerning him, without lisping a word
of impartiality or partiality, or claiming an exemption from pre-
judice, which no reader of common sense would believe, seeing
every hypothesis is stuck pretty full of both.

366 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

We have said that Mr. Pitt married the sister of Richard
Grenville, Earl Temple. She is spoken of as a lady of
exemplary goodness and cultivated talents. We judge of her
by what has flowed from her own pen, and from circumstan-
tials. The editor of the Life of the Right Hon. William Pitt,
Earl of Chatham, published by Almon, addressed a letter to
her as the Dowager Countess of Chatham, in 1791, when she
was far advanced in life, and accompanied it with the volumes.
She says in answer, " I cannot delay desiring you to accept
of my sincere thanks for this mark of your attention. The
sentiments expressed by you of the abilities and virtues of my
late dear Lord, are a sort of assurance to me, that I shall find
his character and conduct painted in those colors that suit the
dignity and wisdom that belonged to them." In the same let-
ter she utters her deep regret at the loss experienced by her-
self, her country, her family, and friends. If this should be
considered as the formal expression of a bereaved widow, mere
common-place language, we have a small family-picture by her
own hand, clear from any thing of the kind. It is a letter to
Dr. Addington, their family-physician and particular friend,
and has special reference to an anecdote which excited great
public attention in that day (1778.) It related to an overture,
said to have been made from the Earl of Bute to the Earl of
Chatham, by the agency of Sir James Wright, and through Dr.
Addington* who was the family-physician to all three, and
whose mind and time were much given to politics. The
negotiation, if a loose, informal, out-of-joint conversation could
merit that name, had for its ultimate object the return of Lord
Chatham, then in a miserable state of health, to the service of
his country as Prime Minister, to remedy, if possible, the
lamentable condition of the kingdom, the efforts of which were
unavailing, and its arms unsuccessful, in every quarter of the
globe. Among other heart-sinking calamities was the disaster
of General Burgoyne's army, who, after very hard fighting and

* Father of tbe Prime Minister of that name.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 367

repeated defeats, were compelled to lay down their arms and
surrender to the American militia. Upon this followed the
treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with France, and
our increasing current of success in all our Southern States ;
which finally led to the capture of a second British army un-
der the command of Earl Cornwallis, and that strong flood
of feeling which followed after these events in England and
in America.

In this deplorable situation of affairs, as it regarded Britain,
it was a prevalent opinion, that none hut Lord Chatham could
save the kingdom from utter ruin. Whatever mortification may
pretend, there was something like a negotiation contemplated,
and more than contemplated.* The sick Lord Chatham, dis-
gusted with a half-way, gossipping piece of business, tried to put
an end to it by the following note to Dr. Addington.

" Hayes, February 1th, [1778.]
" The conversations, which a certain gentleman [Sir James
Wright] has found means to have with you, are, on his part,
of a nature too insidious, and to my feelings too offensive, to
be continued, or unrejected. What can this officious emissary
mean by all the nonsense he has, at times, thrown out to you ?
The next attempt he makes to surprise friendly integrity by
courtly insinuation, let him know that his great patron [Lord
Bute] and your village friend differ in this ; — one has brought
the King and Kingdom to ruin ; the other would sincerely
endeavour to save it."

This note was followed by a letter from Sir James Wright
to Dr. Addington, in such high strains of respect and defer-
ence for Lord Chatham, as seems to have disarmed the noble
sufferer of anger ; as appears by the following letter from
Lady Chatham to Dr. Addington. This is the small family-

* The author was, at that period and two years previous, a member
of Dr. Fothergill's family.

368 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

picture ; and all that we have here said of Lord Bute, Dr. Ad-
dington, and Sir James Wright, is hut the frame of it.

From Lady Chatham to Dr. Addington.

"I write, my dear Sir, from my Lord's bed-side, who has
had much pain all last night from gout in his left hand and
wrist. The pulse indicates more pain to come.

" He desires me to express for him the true sense he has of
all your very friendly attentions in this very delicate and criti-
cal situation.

" The gentleman's letter, which you transmit, is handsomely
written, and sufficiently explicit. At the same time it is im-
possible not to remark, how widely it differs from the tenor of
some of the intimations conveyed in former strange conversa-
tions to you. The letter now before him is written also with
much good sense and candor, as coming from a heart touched
with the extreme dangers impending over the King and King-
dom. Those dangers are indeed extreme, and seem to pre-
clude all hope.

" Hayes, quarter before one, February 9th, 1778." *

As it is to our purpose to speak of this noble Lady, let us,
with respectful steps, approach the dwelling of the supposed
author of the famous Letters. This hallowed retreat is situ-
ated in the pleasant village of Hayes, sixteen miles from Lon-
don, where shone, in dignified retirement, the partner of the
great Statesman's honors, cares, and pains. f Ol this excellent
woman the Rev. F. Thackeray says, " She possessed a very
powerful understanding, combined with great feminine deli-
cacy. The ease and spirit with which her Ladyship wrote,
rendered her letters very delightful to her friends, and enabled
her to assist Lord Chatham, during his attendance in Parlia-

* Lord Chatham died three months after.

f From a private letter to Woodfall, March 5, 1772, we infer, that
Junius resided in the country.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 269

merit, or his attacks of the gout, in answering many of his cor-
respondents."

Such domestic aids in the most secret and delicate tran-
sactions of a minister's life, are less rare in Europe than here,
where, as yet, our government has few or no secrets ; and
diplomacy itself but little occasion for exercising those subtle
powers of intrigue, stratagem, and honorable artifice, com-
mon in most countries.

We have a delightful picture of the amiable influence of the
female character on the life and conduct of a public man,
brought down to us through Roman history. It has been ju-
diciously re-touched by the Spectator (See No. 525.), and
relates to Pliny, who is there described as one of the finest
gentlemen and politest writers of the age in which he lived.
It is contained in a letter to Hispulla, his wife's aunt, who
brought her up. Pliny, speaking of his wife, says, " I am
sure it will be a pleasure to you to hear that she proves wor-
thy of her father, worthy of you, and of your and her ances-
tors. Her ingenuity is admirable ; her frugality extraordinary.
She loves me, the surest pledge of her virtue ; and adds to
this a wonderful disposition to learning, which she has acquired
from her affection to me. She reads my writings, studies
them, and even gets them by heart. You'd smile to see
the concern she is in when I have a cause to plead ; and the
joy she shows when it is over. She finds means to have the
first news brought her of the success I meet with in court, —
how I am heard, and what decree is made. If I recite any
thing in public, she cannot refrain from placing herself pri-
vately in some corner to hear, where, with the utmost delight,
she feasts upon my applause. Sometimes she sings my verses,
and accompanies them with the lute, without any master, ex-
cept love, the best of instructers. From these instances, I
take the most certain omens of our perpetual and increasing
happiness, since her affection is not founded on my youth and
person, which must gradually decay ; but she is in Jove with
the immortal part of ine, — my glory and reputation. Nor in-

370 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

deed could less be expected from one who had the happiness
to receive her education from you. who, in your house, was
accustomed to every thing that was virtuous and decent, and
even began to love me by your recommendation. For, as you
had always the greatest respect for my mother, you were
pleased, from my infancy, to form me, to commend me, and
kindly to presage I should be one day what my wife fancies I
am. Accept, therefore, our united thanks ; mine, that you
have bestowed her on me ; and hers, that you have given me
to her, as a mutual grant of joy and felicity."

Here is a beautiful family-picture, painted about eighty
years after the birth of Christ, by a contemporary of Tacitus,
a subject of Trajan, and a particular pupil of Quintilian, — the
all accomplished Pliny ; and it may be justly admired as a
faithful delineation of friendship, tenderness, true love, and
constancy.

What forbids our tranferring this charming domestic scene
to the quiet habitation of Lord and Lady Chatham at Hayes ?
and with felicitous circumstantials, which neither Roman nor
Grecian ever enjoyed ?

Lord Chatham, besides an accomplished spouse, was blessed
with a sister, Mrs. Anne Pitt* who is represented by Mr.
Burke as a lady of extraordinary powers of mind, a very keen
disputant even with her brother, and remarkable for richness
and variety of eloquence in discourse, resembling that for which
he was famous, and to a degree even to astonish the modern
Cicero, who expressed his regret that he had not committed
to paper some striking specimens of her brilliancy. f Com-
mon as exaggeration is in giving characters, we have no sus-
picion of it here, seeing the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke was
equally enraptured with the mental powers of Anne Pitt. His

* Mrs. Anne Pitl died unmarried, in 1789. In England they call
single women, of an advanced age, Mrs., and not Miss, as we do in
America. We apply that girlish epithet to a maiden lady of ninety or
a hundred.

f See ? ! f Burke.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 37 1

Lordship had the highest opinion of the genius of Mr. Pitt
as a man, and of his sister as a woman. The former he termed
sublimity Pitt, and the latter divinity Pitt. Horace Walpole
says, in a letter to the Earl of Hertford in April, 1765, " Mr.
Caraman is agreeable, informed, and intelligent. He supped
at your brother's t'other night, after being at Mrs. Anne Pitt's.
As the first curiosity of foreigners is to see Mr. Pitt, and as
that curiosity is one of the most difficult points in the world
to gratify, he asked me if Mr. Pitt was like his sister. I told
him, Qu'ils se ressembloient comme deux gouttes de feu."

This highly gifted lady is mentioned by Lord Chesterfield,
who says to his son, " The fine Mrs. Pitt, who, it seems, saw
you often at Paris, speaking of you the other day, said in
French, ***********. , Whether it is that you did
not pay the homage due to her beauty, or that it did not strike
you as it does others, I cannot determine ; but I hope she had
some other reason than truth for saying it. I will suppose
that you did not care a pin for her ; but, however, she surely
deserved a degree of propitiatory adoration from you, which
I am afraid you neglected."

Mrs. Anne Pitt was maid of honor to Queen Caroline,
and privy-purse to the Princess Dowager of Wales. She
held these courtly stations when her brother was, at one and
the same time, Secretary of State and Prime Minister to King
George the Second, and afterwards under his grandson George
the Third.

As the historian is at three thousand miles' distance from the
great city of the King, may he not be allowed to guess, that
the Pitt family had the facility of knowing the domestic
scenes of the royal family almost as well as their own, and
the more so from the publicity of a royal palace compared
with that of subjects.* Junius mentions the variations of the

*The following paragraph appeared in Wood fall's paper, Dec. 6, 1771.
" We liave the pleasure to assure the public, from the most undoubted
authority, that the repeated accounts of her Royal Highness, the
Princess Dowager of Wales, being very ill, and her life in great dan-

372 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

King's temper and consequent diet, and appears to know every
thing concerning him.

If we renounce the idea of that sort of domestic aid and assis-
tance here suggested, we are aground, — unable to stir an inch ;
nay, we are confounded, deeming it an impossibility, or next
to it, that an insulated individual, separated, through fear of
detection, from every one else, should be able to compose, re-
ply, and rejoin, as Junius did, with the necessary copying and
every needful preparation for the press, with the very nice
business of sure and safe transmission, without the kind of help
we have suggested. With it all, the difficulty is great, very
great, considering the power of those whom Junius had
the audacity to attack. That the writer should be able to pre-
serve an uninterrupted chain of epistles of such a peculiar
character, and even advertise, that such and such letters to
Lord Mansfield should appear on a particular day, and be
able to keep his promise undetected, is a surprising thing
on any hypothesis, and absolutely wonderful upon any hy-
pothesis but the one we have advanced. It is conceivable
that a lonely individual might write and stick up an epigram
or lampoon every week for years, in different parts of an im-
mense city, without an accomplice ; but not a consecutive series
of libellous essays, attacking the sovereign, the head of the ju-
diciary, the army, very powerful individuals, and, amidst
threats, setting at defiance the ability of them all to pull off his
mask, or to draw him from his dark recess into light and punish-
ment. Such a correspondence between the writer and a dis-
tant printer could not have been carried on in the city of
Paris, where the police resembles the discipline of a camp ;
whereas London had no police until Mr. Colquhoun led the
way to something like one. London, before that period, was

ger, are entirely false." Junius thereupon says, at the close of a let-
ter to Che Printer, four days after ; " What do you mean by affirming
that the Dowager is better ? / tell you that she suckles toads from
morning till night." [She died four weeks after of a shocking cancer
in the breast, having used the quack-remedy here mentioned.]

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 373

governed pretty much like our cities in America by the man-'
ners of the people. Allowing for this freedom from espionage,
the safe transmission of the letters betokens a management be-
yond a common character. " The difficulty of corresponding,"
says Junius to Woodfall, " arises from situation and necessity,
to which we must submit. Your letter was twice refused last
night, and the waiter as often attempted to see the person who
sent for it." (March 3 and 5, 1772.) We attribute the complete
success, in all these difficulties, to a man with a mind, whose
sight was infinite, whose schemes were always seasonable and
always adequate, and whose power of secrecy was deemed
wonderful, while he penetrated the secrets of others, from the
monarch, with his floating, morbid humors, to his page ; and
from the wretched Princess Dowager with her odious quack
remedy to the varied cookery of her perturbed son. The man,
to whom we attribute the Letters, was singular and remarkable
for his knowledge of minutice, while his august mind and
manner overawed majesty. It was well known, that George
the Second felt royalty so impaired in his presence, that he
conspired to remove him in order to be relieved from his su-
periority. This could not be concealed from Mr. Pitt, who,
after being called to the helm a second time, preserved that
uniform and undeviating course of etiquette, which gained the
heart of the aged Hanoverian, and preserved it to the last
hour of his life. Something of the same overshadowing
influence was felt by the more familiar and gentleman-
like George the Third. In the memorable audience at the
Queen's palace in 1763, which lasted three hours, it was
generally supposed, that the great master of eloquence over-
powered the judgment of the King, and led it captive ; * for,

* Dr. Franklin has remarked, that, in his conversations with Lord
Chatham on the subject of his plan for settling the troubles in Ameri-
ca, he was so full and diffuse, that he could not interrupt him with a
remark, nor go through half of his own memorandums. He adds,
"He is not easily interrupted, and I had such pleasure in hearing him,
that I found little inclination to interrupt him." Such is the power of
a superior mind sublimed by eloquence.

374 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

at a second audience, two days after, the King retraced his
steps, and excused himself from following the advice given,
with saying, that his word was passed, and his honor concern-
ed, — a fresh evidence of that secret influence complained of in
the earliest part of the reign of that unhappy monarch.

If we weigh what has been said, to whom but to this great
Statesman, consummate orator, and remarkably gifted man,
can we attribute the golden pages of Junius ? — for such they
truly are compared with any prose writings in our language.
Unique as was the manner, doctrine, style, and temper of Lord
Chatham, yet he resembles the man behind the curtain, more
than any other character hitherto mentioned as the supposed
author of the Letters ; and the parallel passages, cited from
the speeches of the one and the writings of the other, seem to
put it beyond doubt.

Lord Chatham was a domestic man, made so by his arthritic
infirmities ; so was Cardinal Richelieu. Both were abstracted
from the fashionable world. Both discarded ceremonial le-
vees, dinners, and suppers, — those moths of time, health, and
study. Both were great ministers ; both brilliant in literature.
Thus situated and circumstanced, and withdrawn from Parlia-
ment, who so likely to give vent to his mixed feelings, per-
sonal and patriotic, and who more favorably situated for it,
than Lord Chatham ? No one will suppose me to insinuate,
that he needed any one to help him think, or to express what
he thought. We only insist, that, crippled and enfeebled, it was
his happy lot to be blest with two very able. amanuenses, — one
of them another self, a pearl of great price, — and the other, his
brilliant sister, a second jewel in his Urim and Thummim.
From such a pectorale sparks of light, truth, and intelligence
must have been elicited, in their solemn retirement, amid sober
reflections on the varied scenes of their past honorable lives.
" It is gratifying to reflect," says the biographer of Chatham,*
" that he, who had devoted his life to the severest application

* Thackeray.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 375

in the public cause, should have had so accomplished and in-
teresting a family, to soothe his declining years, and to exhila-
rate his hours of relaxation. Few men were able to enjoy
these blessings with a juster sense of their value. Ambition,"
says he, " may have indurated some feelings of his heart in his
intercourse with the political world ; but his conduct, in every
domestic relation, was, throughout his life, most exemplary and
delightful."

We submit, with peculiar pleasure, this subject of aid from
the female head, heart, and hand, of the indoor circle of post-
meridian felicity, to the feelings and judgment of the happy in
this favored land, with only one remark, viz. If daugh-
ters be educated in literature equally with sons, they write as
well, and often better, inasmuch as they perceive quicker and
discriminate more nicely, have a more delicate taste, and a
more correct judgment respecting the consistency and harmony
of things in social life. With more patience than men, they are
better disposed to that refinement of humanity, defined com-
placency, or an inclination that busies itself in pleasing antici-
pations, especially where there is the familiarity of intimacy.
They generally feel a deeper interest, a greater ambition in
aiding their male connexions, than men feel towards one anoth-
er, especially in literary matters, in which many of them are
keen critics and admirable polishers, after the hammering,
rasping, and filing of a stronger masculine hand. The women
of France seem to have put all competition at defiance ;
not but what England, Switzerland, and America have jewels
of the same kind, but occasion has too rarely produced them
to view.

We reiterate, perhaps to tediousness, that the transcription
of the Letters of Junius could never have been made by the
hand of a hireling, but by the hand of affection, by one em-
barked in the same frail vessel, upon a deep and boundless
ocean with a threatening sky, where one fate was to befall
both. Conceive, thoughtful reader, a great man of Lord
Chatham's matchless genius, rare acquirements, and unique

376 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

style of eloquence, that exhausted the richness of our language,
sore with keen excitement from extreme ill usage, working
up the bullion of his rich mind to a high degree of perfection
as it regards form, and assisted by "people about him whom he
would wish not to contradict" for the highest possible polish.
We need not suppose such aids took the pen of original com-
position, but to converse, debate, surmise, suggest, and
criticize, and by these and other kindred means, call forth
the strong and various powers of the great original himself.
It is probable, nay, it is certain, that through co-operating in-
tellects, and by similar means, came forth into mimic life, the
greatest wonders of Grecian sculpture. We repeat it, — it is
the decree of Heaven, and the undeviating order of nature,
that no one thing originates and proceeds alone.

Junius complained sorely, that no one assisted him in the
newspapers, blinding himself with poring over papers for au-
thorities, — that he was left to do every thing. Hence he was
compelled to make his left hand aid his right under the signature
of J 3 iiiLO- Junius ; and, before that, under the signature of Do-
mitian, Valerius, Brutus, Lucius, and Atticus, to prepare the
way for the entrance on the stage of Junius himself.

The sort of domestic aid and domestic interest in the labors
of a public man is not so rare as many imagine. In that
pious forgery, entitled Icon Basilike, palmed on the world
as the production of Charles the First in his deepest trou-
bles, the real author, Dr. Gauden, could not carry on the
deception without domestic help. That supererogant di-
vine, not contented with the self-satisfaction of increasing
vastly the worshippers of " the royal martyr," and enjoy-
ing disinterested benevolence, very eagerly sought a meaner
reward on the restoration of the Second Charles, by declar-
ing that that very popular book, however pious the language,
was given to an admiring public by " a lying spirit." To ob-
tain pay for it, Dr. Gauden writes to the Secretary of State,
■S.V Edward Nicholas, thus : " The book and the figure were
wholly and only my invention, making, and design, in order to

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 377

vindicate the king's wisdom, honor, and piety. My wife, in-
deed, was conscious of it ; and had a hand in disguising the
letters of that copy which I sent to the King in the Isle of
Wight, by favor of the Marquis of Hertford." *

Here the lying spirit, though immortal, f could not prevail
without domestic help. Milton exposed the deception ; but
it was not the fashion of the day to regard the opinion of a re-
publican. Lord Clarendon betrayed his knowledge of the
fraud, by a private letter to Bishop Gauden upon the Icon
BasiUke, and by his total silence on the subject in his history
of " the nineteen years' rebellion." J

In order to effect certain patriotic purposes through
Alderman Savvbridge, Junius wrote several private letters
to Mr. Wilkes ; two of considerable length, urging this
celebrated man to a more magnanimous line of conduct
towards the worthy Alderman, than Wilkes seemed capable
of. Mr. Charles Butler once sat down with his friend
Wilkes to examine, with great and lawyer-like attention, those
epistles, with a view of tracing the author of them. Mr. But-
ler, in his pleasant Reminiscences, says, that the same hand-
writing marks all of them, except the Letter to the King, and
it is like that which well-educated ladies wrote about the be-
ginning of the century [written 1780] ; viz. a large open hand,
regular, approaching to the Italian ; that Mr. Wilkes had a
card of invitation to. dinner from old Lady Temple, written in
her own hand ; and on comparing it with Junius's Letters, they
thought there was some resemblance between them. The
Letter to the King was in a hand-writing perfectly different ;
a very regular, staid hand, with no difference between the
hair-stroke and the body of the letters [as if first written with
a lead-pencil, and traced over with ink.] He says that

* Edinburgh Review for June, 1826. Art. Icon Basilike.

f "On eagle's wings immortal scandals fly." — Dryde.v.

J Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, quotes from the Icon Basilike as
the words of King Charles ; and Dr. Webster, perpetuates the decep-
tion in his more valuable Dictionary.

378 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

the lines of the letters were very even ; with very few blots,
erasures, or marks of hurry. Mr. Butler adds, " that the
letters, generally, if not always, were sent in an envelope
(which was then by no means general as it now is), and in the
folding up and the direction of the letter, we thought we could
see marks of the writer's habit of folding and directing official
letters." In a little volume of letters, written by the Earl of
Chatham to his nephew Lord Camelford, a youth at College,
one dated from the pay-office, April 15, 1755, concludes thus.
" Inclose your letters in a cover ; it is more polite." From
all which we learn, that the use of an envelope, though rare at
that day, was habitual with Lord Chatham and with Junius.
Lawyers know the weight of circumstantial evidence. Mr.
Wilkes said, that the manner in which Junius corrected the
printed sheets showed, that he was accustomed to such an em-
ployment, and had a familiar use of the marks of printers in
correcting proof-sheets.

" We thought" says Mr. Butler, " his high-wrought pane-
gyric of Lord Chatham loas ironical." So that it never
came into their heads as into ours, that his Lordship wrote it
himself.

We understand that Robert Wood, Esq., a gentleman well
known for his learned and valuable publications, was, for a long
series of years, private secretary to Mr. Pitt, and afterwards of-
ficial under-secretary while Lord Chatham was in the govern-
ment. Dr. Franklin mentions the same gentleman in his
Memoirs, and says, "When I came to England in 1757,1
made several attempts to be introduced to Lord Chatham, then
Mr. Pitt, at that time first minister, on account of my Penn-
sylvania business, but without success. He was then too great
a man, or too much occupied in affairs of great moment. I
was therefore obliged to content myself with a kind of non-
apparent and unacknowledged communication through Mr.
Potter and Mr. Wood, his secretaries, who seemed to culti-
vate an acquaintance with me by their civilities ; and drew
from me what information I could give relative to the Ameri-

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 37O

can war, with my sentiments, occasionally, on measures that
were proposed or advised by others ; which gave me the op-
portunity of recommending and enforcing the utility of con-
quering Canada. [Between 1757 and 1758.] I afterwards
considered Mr. Pitt as inaccessible."

Mr. Butler has an interesting Chapter on the Letters of Ju-
nius. Near the close of it is this paragraph.

" Mentioning, in one of his letters to Woodfall, the edition,
which that gentlemen then projected of his Letters, Junius
says, 'When the book is finished, let me have a set bound
in vellum, gilt and lettered, as handsome as you can, — the
edges gilt ; — let the sheets he well dried before binding? "

" Who," says Mr. Butler, " is the fortunate possessor of
these two vellum volumes ? — The Reminiscent knows as little
as the rest of the world, — but thinks it was not unknown to
the founder of a noble house, to which the public owes an
edition of Homer, which does the nation honor." Thus far
Mr. Butler.

Now who was the editor of this highly extolled edition of
Homer ? He was Robert Wood, Lord Chatham's private
secretary, just mentioned. Who was the founder of a noble
house to whom the public is indebted for that learned work ?
It was the grand nephew of Lady Chatham, and places the
vellum volumes, about where we had long since conjectured they
might be found, — in the Grenville Family, a mere sketch
of which we have presumed to make and hold up to our
readers.

Four years after this was written, there appeared the follow-
ing article in one of our newspapers, copied from a London
paper called " The Globe,'''' viz.

" Five letters are deposited in the archives of the Grenville
family at Stowe, xohich establish, beyond the possibility of
doubt, the real author of Junius. This eminent individual
was politically connected with Mr. George Grenville, the grand-
father of the present Duke of Buckingham, from whom these
autograph proofs have descended to the present possessor.

380 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

The venerable Statesman, nearly allied to the Duke of Buck-
ingham, has requested the discovery should not be published
during his life-time. It is, however, confidently asserted, that,
in all the controversies relating to these celebrated Letters,
the author has not been named."

After reaching an age when that great comfort of human
life, vanity, is commonly evaporated, if I have made a dis-
covery by pursuing the road of patient induction, while others
have failed in their search by wandering upon a fenceless com-
mon, I hope to be allowed the enjoyment of its few remaining
drops ; for during forty years I have preserved a steady opin-
ion, and often expressed it, that no man could have felt and
written like Junius, save William, Pitt, Earl of Chatham.
He was acquainted with the deep disorder in the state of
Britain ; and to cure it, like a skilful physician, used only
Herculean remedies.

Englishmen ! erect a Temple to your Magnus APOLLO !
lest we Americans get the start of you !

On the seventh of April, 1778, Lord Chatham, in a very
feeble state, of health was led into the House of Peers by his
son William, and his son-in-law, Lord Mahon. He was
dressed in a rich suit of black velvet, and covered up to his
knees in flannel. He looked like a dying man, yet never was
seen a figure of more dignity.* He appeared like a being of
superior species. The Lords stood up, and made a lane for
him to pass to his seat, whilst, with a gracefulness of deport-
ment, for which he was so eminently distinguished, he bowed
to them as he proceeded. Having taken his seat, he listened
to the speech of the Duke of Richmond with the most pro-
found attention. The Duke, at the close of the grand com-
mittee of inquiry, which sat during the greater part of the ses-
sion, moved an address to the throne, recapitulating the ex-
penses, misconduct, and losses of the war ; intreating the Sov-

* See Thackeray, and Seward's Anecdotes.

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 381

ereign to dismiss his ministers ; advising him to withdraw all
his force s by sea and land from the revolted provinces, and to
adopt amicable means only to recover their friendship, at least,
if not their allegiance. This question of independence was
enough to kindle all Lord Chatham's English enthusiasm.

After Lord Weymouth had spoken against the address,
Lord Chatham rose with slowness and difficulty from his
seat, leaning on his crutches, and supported by his two rela-
tions. He took one hand from his crutch and raised it, cast-
ing his eyes towards Heaven, and said "J thank God that I
have been enabled to come here this day, to perform my duty,
and to speak on a subject which is so deeply impressed on my
mind. I am old and infirm, — have one foot, — more than one
foot, — in the grave. I have risen from my bed, to stand up in
the cause of my country, — perhaps never again to speak in
this House ! "

The reverence, the attention, the stillness of the House
were here most affecting ; had any one dropped a handker-
chief, the noise would have been heard.

At first, Lord Chatham spoke in that low and feeble tone
which is characteristic of severe indisposition ; but as he grew
warm, his voice rose, and became as harmonious as ever ;
oratorical and affecting, perhaps more so than at any former
period. He recounted the whole history of the American
war, the measures to which he had objected, and all the evil
consequences which he had foretold ; adding, at the end of
every period, " And so it proved."

In one part of his speech, he ridiculed the apprehension of
an invasion, and then recalled the remembrance of former in-
vasions. " A Spanish invasion, a French invasion, a Dutch
invasion, many noble Lords must have read in history ; and
some Lords (looking sternly at Lord Mansfield,*) may re-
member a Scotch invasion.

* Chatham retained his antipathy towards Mansfield to his last
breath !

382 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

" I rejoice, my Lords, that the grave has not closed upon
me, that Lam still alive to lift up my voice against the dismem-
berment of this ancient and most noble monarchy ! Pressed
down as I am by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to as-
sist my country in this most perilous conjuncture ; but, my
Lords, while I have sense and memory I will never consent to
deprive the royal offspring of the House of Brunswick, the
heirs of the Princess Sophia, of their fairest inheritance. I
will first see the Prince of Wales, the Bishop of Osnaburg,
and the other rising hopes of the royal family, brought down to
the committee, and assent to such an alienation. Where is
the man that will dare to advise it ? My Lords, his Majesty
succeeded to an empire as great in extent as its reputation was
unsullied. Shall we tarnish the lustre of this nation by an ig-
nominious surrender of its rights and fairest possessions ?
Shall this great kingdom, that has survived, whole and entire,
the Danish depredations, the Scottish inroads, and the Nor-
man conquest ; that has stood the threatened invasion of the
Spanish armada, now fall prostrate before the House of Bour-
bon ? Surely, my Lords, this nation is no longer what it was !
Shall a people, that, seventeen years ago, was the terror of the
world, now stoop so low as to tell its ancient, inveterate ene-
my, ' Take all we have, only give us peace ? ' It is im-
possible !

" I wage war with no man or set of men. I wish for none
of their employments ; nor would I co-operate with men who
still persist in unretracted error ; or who, instead of acting on
a firm, decisive line of conduct, halt between two opinions,
where there is no middle path. In God's name, if it is abso-
lutely necessary to declare either for peace or war, and the
former cannot be preserved with honor, why is not the latter
commenced without hesitation ? I am not, I confess, well in-
formed of the resources of this kingdom, but I trust it has still
sufficient to maintain its just rights, though I know them not.
But, my Lords, any state is better than despair. Let us, at
least, make one effort ; and if we must fall, let us fall like
men ! "

TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE LETTERS. 383

In the course of his speech in reply to Lord Chatham, the
Duke of Richmond said, that " he did not doubt but the
name of the Earl of Chatham (he begged to apologize for
mentioning his Lordship by name) would rouse the spirit of
the nation. But that name, great and mighty as it was, could
not gain victories without an army, without a navy, and without
money. If a large fleet of French ships met a few of ours,
did the noble Earl think, that merely telling them that the
Earl of Chatham had the conduct of public affairs, would pre-
vent us from being beaten ? If the fleet passed our ships, and
the French effected an invasion, did the noble Earl imagine,
that merely telling the invaders that Lord Chatham was the
minister, and that he had roused the spirit of the nation,
would induce them to re-imbark and abandon their purpose?"
During this and some other parts of the Duke's clumsy
speech, Lord Chatham indicated, in countenance and gesture,
symptoms of emotion and disgust. When the Duke of Rich-
mond sat down, Lord Chatham made an eager effort to rise,
as if laboring with some great idea, and impatient to give ut-
terance to his feelings. But the body was unable to sustain
the energies of the mind. After repeated attempts to retain
his erect position, he suddenly pressed his hand to his great
heart and fell. He lingered to the eleventh of the month fol-
lowing, when he died at his seat in Hayes.

His firmness of mind was remarkable. On his death-bed
he said to his son, who was about to depart for Gibraltar, but
was unwilling to leave his father, " Go, my son, go where
your country calls you ; let her engross all your attention ;
spare not a moment, which is due to her service, in weeping
over an old man who will soon be no more"

CHAPTER XIII.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE THE THIRD.

Although Junius observed proper respect for the Throne,
it is manifest that he entertained a personal dislike to the King.
This is a delicate subject ; yet we must touch it. The official
character of George the Third and the history of the Ameri-
can revolution and independency, are so interwoven, that we
cannot separate them, without making an unseemly rent in the
web of our narrative. One reign has passed away since that
monarch's death, and another has just commenced. This
allows us to speak of him with the same freedom as of any
crowned head that preceded him.

Junius disdains to disguise his contempt of the Duke of
Grafton, his antipathy to Lord Mansfield, and his abhorrence
of the characters of the Duke of Bedford and of Lord Bar-
rington ; and though he tries to throw a veil over his dislike
of the King, we now and then discover the truth under some
corners of it, which sudden gusts of resentment blow aside.
Like Junius and like Lord Chatham, we Americans al-
ways maintained a theoretical reverence for the Sovereign,
even from the year 1766 to 1776. Then, indeed, what had
been, for ten years, dammed up, broke loose and inundated
loyalty at once among those in authority, while the people
as usual observed no degrees of comparison in their expres-

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 385

s'ons of regal criminality. Adhering conscientiously to their
i ational character, they spoke daggers, but used none.*

It was the political character and conduct of George the
Third which gave birth to Junius. Had his uncle, the Duke
of Cumberland, ascended the throne, the Princess Dowager
and her son George would have dwelt in comparative privacy,
and neither Junius, nor his harbinger, " The North Briton,"
wotdd have ever appeared, nor the name of John Wilkes have
ever been heard beyond the smoke of his chimney.

The private character of George the Third was almost in
every respect unexceptionable. He was correct in les mceurs, and
distinguished in les bienscances ; his court was chaste, his queen
discreet and remarkably circumspe ', and their children rigid-
ly governed as regarded their religious creed, and in the Ger-
man system of etiquette. There was an easy, gentleman-like
demeanor in the King, that hardly ever betrayed a consciousness
of his very high station ; which is remarkable, as in his national
government and political measures and conduct, there was
something like an unbending self-sufficiency, and unremitting
adherence to maxims of state, partly German and partly
Scotch, imbibed at an early period of life, before experience
had time to judge of and correct them.

The English people were delighted with the novel circum-
stance of having a native-born King " to go in and out before
them ; " and the Scotch were greatly pleased at seeing one of
their own noblemen the acknowledged favorite of the court,
and another at the head of the judiciary. The whole realm
appeared to rejoice that they had at length an Englishman on
the throne, not tied to Hanover by a natural feeling, or to
France, Italy, or Germany, by uxoriousner.s. The public
magnified every praiseworthy act in the young monarch, such

* During a period of great excitement and resentment in Boston
against Stir Fran is Barnard, one of the English Commissioners asked
the Governor if he was not afraid to walk the streets and over his
farm unarmed and alone. He replied, " Not in the least. The Ameri-
cans are not a bloody-minded people.''''

386 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

as making the judges independent of the crown, and liberating
a poor Roman Catholic from a Jong, rigorous imprisonment
for the crime of worshipping God according to the dictates of
his own conscience. They considered this just and this mer-
ciful deed as a sure presage of a wise and glorious reign. The
novelty-loving English were enraptured with their affable King ;
his levee being such a contrast to that of his grandfather,
which had some resemblance to a lion's den. In comparing
the beginning of the reign of George the Third with the very
sad scenes which attended its latter years, one of the historians
of his reign* quotes a passage from Grafs "Bard," as appli-
cable to the splendor of its dawn and " its subsequent fatal
indiscretions."

" Fair laughs the mom, and soft the zephyr blows,

While proudly riding o'er the azure realm

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes ;

Youth at the prow, and pleasure at the helm ;

Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey."

If this were the impression of the wavering public re-
specting the character of George the Third, some men of su-
perior sagacity differed from them. Lord Camden, then At-
torney-General Pratt, said to George the Second's physician,
about four months after the intoxication of the coronation was
past, " I see already that this ivill be a weak and inglorious
reign." It was occasionally whispered, that the King was very
obstinate, and would be influenced by none but his mother
and Lord Bute. An opinion prevailed, that this Scotch noble-
man suggested political opinions and conduct to the Dowager,
and she to her son ; but this was hardly correct. She was the
source of the baleful influence of which patriotism complained.
Bute imbibed her opinions and enforced her directions. She was
undoubtedly a shrewd and knowing woman ; yet Earl Walde-
grave, possibly a little blinded by disgust, denies to her superior
talents or more than an ordinary understanding, while her polit-

* Belsham.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 387

ical notions were more becoming a Polish or Hungarian noble-
man, than the instructress of a British prince. She incessantly
inculcated on her son, — " Be King, and be not shackled by the
Whigs, as was your grandfather ; " and George never forgot
the lesson.

John Nicholls, Esq., a distinguished member of Parliament,
and son of Dr. F. Nicholls, physician to George the Second,
and author of " Recollections and Reflections, Personal and
Political, as connected with Public Affairs, during the Reign
of George the Third," after saying that the King was sober,
temperate, of good domestic habits, addicted to no vice, and
swayed by no passion, adds, " that the whole tenor of his life
has justified the impression that he was not a weak man ; but
that his objects were little and injudiciously chosen ; and that,
so far from his reign being marked by favoritism, he has never
appeared to entertain kindness for any minister employed, ex-
cept for the Earl of Bute ; and that because he was educated
by his mother." She had formed her ideas of sovereign
power at the court of her father. In Saxe-Gotha, the Sove-
reign's personal wishes and opinions are to be obeyed, and he
is his own minister ; in Great Britain, the Sovereign is to
choose for his ministers those whom he thinks best qualified to
advise measures beneficial to the country. If he does not ap-
prove of the measures they recommend, he may remove his
ministers and appoint others ; but whatever measures are car-
ried into effect, the advisers ought not only to be responsible,
but distinctly known and recognised as the advisers. This is not
an opinion which has been theoretically adopted by those who
have treated of the English constitution ; it has been explicitly
declared in Parliament. It completely negatives the idea of
the King being his oivn minister. The sentiment, which the
Princess Dowager had most anxiously impressed on the King's
mind was this ; that he should be his own minister ; that
he should vigilantly observe every attempt of his ministers to
assume a control over him, and use his endeavours to prevent
it. The Princess Dowager was led to enforce this senti-

388 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ment on the mind of her son, not only from the manner in
which she had seen sovereign power exercised in her father's
court, but also from the control which she had seen exercised
by the Pelham party over George the Second. The wish to
be his own minister, and to exercise his power personally, was
the leading feature in George the Third's character through
his whole reign. It influenced his domestic as well as his po-
litical conduct. There does not appear any interval, in which
this sentiment was suspended.

We now clearly understand the remarks of Junius,* when
he says, that " Few nations are in the predicament that we
are, to have nothing to complain of but the filial virtues of our
Sovereign. Charles the First had the same implicit attach-
ment to his spouse." — " In respect to her Royal Highness, I
shall deliver my sentiments without any false tenderness or re-
serve. I consider her not only as the original creating cause
of the shameful and deplorable condition of this country, but
as a being, whose operation is uniform and permanent, who
watches, with a kind of providential malignity, over the work
of her hands, to correct, improve, and preserve it. If the
strongest appearances may be relied on, this lady has now
brought her schemes to perfection. Every office in govern-
ment is filled with men who are known to be her creatures, or
by mere ciphers incapable of resistance. Is it conceivable,
that any thing less than a determined plan of drawing the
power of the crown into her own hands, could have collected
such an administration as the present? Who is Lord North ?
The son of a poor unknown Earl, who, four years ago, was a
needy commissioner of the treasury for the benefit of a sub-
sistence, and who would have accepted a commission of hack-
ney coaches upon the same terms. The politics of Carlton-
house, finances picked up in Mr. Grenville's ante-chamber,
and the elocution of Demosthenes, endeavouring to speak plain
with pebbles in his mouth, form the stuffing of that figure which

* Domitian, January 17, 1771, recognised by Junius.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 389

calls itself minister." [What Is here said of Lord North is,
be sure, lampoonical, but riot a word impeaching his character
as an honorable and able man.] Of die Dowager, Junius
furthermore remarks, that, " Gifted as she is, she could hard-
ly fail of success [in preventing war with Spain], if the quar-
rels of nations bore any resemblance to domestic feuds, or
could be conducted upon the same principle's. The genius of
Queen Elizabeth united the nation, collected the strengdi of
the people, and carried it forward to resistance and victory.
When the demon of discord sits at the helm, what have we to
expect but distraction and civil war at home, disgrace and in-
famy abroad ? "

Oliver Cromwell, Frederic of Prussia, and Napoleon
Bonaparte were their own ministers, and well they might be ;
but for George the Third to undertake, as in 1764, the kingly
power personally, showed the folly of his German instructress,
and the weak judgment of the man. Hence we account for
his extreme pertinacity in the attempt to tax these colonies
without their consent, after such a profound lawyer as Lord
Camden and such a consummate politician as Lord Chatham
had solemnly declared, that neither the King nor the Parlia-
ment, nor all three together, had a legal right to do so. The
stamp act was undoubtedly the favorite measure of the King,
and not of George Grenville, whom he dismissed, because he
found him not sufficienily subservient to all his American views;
he discarded the Marquis of Rockingham because he repealed
the stamp act, and took into his service, as minister, the more
pliant Duke of Grafton, who, it was given out at court, was to
act under the guidance of Lord Chatham, but who was ac-
tually found willing to leave him and pursue the advice of the
secret, irresponsible cabinet, in which Mr. Jenkinson, Lord
Bute's quondam, private secretary, had more power than
the ostensible minister. But when his majesty found that
the great lawyer, his most obedient friend, Lord Mansfield,
could give him neither clear law nor precedent for taxing an
English subject without his consent, he had recourse to craft ;

390 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

but the great master of it, Charles Townsend, made but a
bungling piece of work in forcing a mixture of tea and pain-
ters' colors down the throat of nauseated America. Then
came force with all his terrors, — fire and sword, hlood and
ashes. The fight-loving Scotchmen shouted for war, and one
of them, not satisfied with the usual instruments of it, most loy-
ally invoked starvation ! *

Not only the scattered remnants of the old Tory faction glad-
ly rallied to the cause, but the veteran and faithful band of
placemen, pensioners, and bribed representatives came smiling
in as volunteers. This will surprise no man ; but that a great
majority of the clergy of the Episcopal Anglican church should
hasten to rally under the banner of a deluded King, busy, vin-
dictive, and blind to consequences, mistaking obstinate inflexi-
bility for dignity, is a matter for surprise and mortification.
We could bear unmoved the abuse of Lords Suffolk, Gower,
and Sandwich, by returning contempt for contempt ; but to be
stigmatized, from the sacred desk, as a herd of fanatics and
hypocrites, and called Puritans by way of reproach, — a term
more hateful to the high church than infidel or atheist, — was
more than surprising ; it was shocking. It was somewhat so,
as far as they dared, in this country. The virulent language
used at that time against the colonies, at the court-end of Lon-
don, at Oxford, and Edinburgh, was in the same illiberal, an-
ti-Christian style. f The period referred to was when Bur-
goyne's fine army was about embarking for America, in the
highest flow of spirits and the utmost glee, like a hunting party
with the best omens of a fine chase !

Distrusting my own feelings, on such heart-moving topics, I
turn, whenever I can, to the opinions of the wise, great, and
impartial, neither British nor American. Can I go much
higher than that of Frederic, the renowned King of Prussia,
distinguished among monarchs, as a Hero, Philosopher, and
Statesman ?

* Wedderburne, the vilifier of Franklin before the privy council.
f The author was, at that time, in the way of seeing and hearing'
what he here relates, in England and in Scotland.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 391

" England," says he, " at this period, had involved herself
in a war with her colonies, undertaken in the spirit ot despot-
ism, and conducted in that of folly. It was the Scotchman,
Bute, who still governed the King, and directed the councils
of the kingdom. Like one of those malignant spirits, who are
perpetually talked of, and never seen, he enveloped himself in
profound darkness, whilst, by means of his secret instruments
and emissaries, he moved the whole political machine at his
pleasure. His system was that of the ancient Tories, who
maintained the unlimited power of the Crown to be necessary
to the public welfare. Haughty and harsh in his deportment,
little solicitous as to the selection of the means which he em-
ployed in the accomplishment of his purposes, his obstinacy
could be exceeded only by his indiscretion ; a civil list of one
million scarcely sufficed to gratify the venality of Parliament.

" The English nation, degraded by its Sovereign, ap-
peared to have no will separate from that of the court. But,
as if this was not enough, the minister, Lord Bute, engaged
the King to attempt an arbitrary taxation of the American colo-
nies, at once to augment his revenues and to establish a prece-
dent which might, at a future time, be imitated in Great
Britain. The Americans, whom the court had not deigned to
corrupt, * opposed themselves openly to these imposts, so con-
trary to their charters, their customs, and to the liberties which
they had enjoyed uninterrupted since their first establishment.
A wise government would have hastened to appease these
growing troubles, but the court of London acted upon oilier
principles. The rigor and violence of their proceedings com-
pleted the alienation of the Americans. A Congress was
convened at Philadelphia, in which it was determined to
shake off the English yoke; and from this lime we see
Great Britain engaged in a ruinous war with her own colonies.
France, the perpetual rival of England, saw with pleasure

* They tried to corrupt Samuel Adams and a few others, and suc-
ceeded only with Benedict Arnold.

392 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

these civil commotions, and secretly encouraged the Ameri-
cans to defend their rights against the despotism which George
the Third was desirous to establish, by holding out to them a
prospect of future succours." *

We rejoice in being able to adduce the staid opinion of one
of the wisest and greatest monarchs of the age upon the con-
duct of George the Third towards the North American Colo-
nies. Speaking of France, during this quarrel with America,
the King of Prussia says, " Strong in her alliance with Spain,
and in the assistance thence to be derived, she was watching
the moment to fall, like a falcon, upon her prey, and avenge
herself upon Great Britain, for the disasters she had suffered
during the preceding war. England was, at this time, under
the yoke of the Tories, engaged in a ruinous contest, which
augmented the national debts thirty-six millions of crowns per
annum. For the purpose of striking a blow upon her right
arm with her left, she exhausted all her resources, and ad-
vanced with hasty steps to her decline and fall. Her ministers
accumulated faults ; but of all these the greatest was the war
with America, from which no possible advantage could result.
She had needlessly, and without reason, embroiled herself with
all the surrounding powers ; and to her own misconduct only
could England ascribe that slate of desertion and general aban-
donment in which she now found herself." f

In November, 1777, when a flattering address to the King
was under debate, Lord Chatham said, " My Lords, this is a
perilous and tremendous moment ! It is not a time for adula-
tion. The smoothness of flattery cannot now avail, cannot
save us in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now necessary to
instruct the Throne in the language of truth." — " The extra-
ordinary preparations of the House of Bourbon, by land and
sea, from Dunkirk to the Straits — the seas swept by Ameri-
can privateers — our channel trade torn to pieces by them !

* (1 uvr. de Frederic III, Tome VI.

t GEuvr. de Frederic III, Tome IV. pp. 164, 165.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 393

In this complicated crisis of danger, weakness at home, and
calamity abroad, terrified and insulted by the neighbouring
powers, unable to act in America, or acting only to be de-
stroyed, where is the man with the forehead to promise or hope
for success in such a situation ? You cannot conciliate Ameri
ca by your present measures ; you cannot subdue her by your
present or by any measures. What then can you do ? You
cannot conquer, you cannot gain, but you can address ; you
can lull the fears and anxieties of the moment into an igno-
rance of the danger that should produce them. But, my
Lords, the time demands the language of truth : we must not
now apply the flattering unction of servile compliance, or
blind complaisance. In a just and necessary war, to main-
tain the rights or honor of my country, I would strip the shirt
from my back to support it. But in such a war as this, un-
just in its principle, impracticable in its means, and ruinous in
its consequences, I would not contribute a single effort, nor a
single shilling.

" My Lords, I have submitted to you, with the freedom
and truth which 1 think my duty, my sentiments on your
present awful situation. I have laid before you the ruin of
your power, the disgrace of your reputation, the pollution of
your discipline, the contamination of your morals, the compli-
cation of calamities, foreign and domestic, that overwhelm
your sinking country. Your dearest interests, your own lib-
erties, the Constitution itself totters to the foundation. All this
disgraceful danger, this multitude of misery, is the monstrous
offspring of this unnatural war. We have been deceived and de-
luded too long : let us now stop short : this is the crisis — may
be the only crisis, of time and situation, to give us a possibility
of escape from the fatal effects of our delusions. But if, in an
obstinate and infatuated perseverance in folly, we meanly echo
back the peremptory words this day presented to us, nothing
can save this devoted country from complete and final ruin.
We madly rush into multiplied miseries, and confusion worse
confounded.

394 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

"Is it possible, can it be believed, that ministers are yet blind
to this impending destruction? — I did hope, that, instead of
this false and empty vanity, this overweening pride, engender-
ing high conceits and presumptuous imaginations — that min-
isters would have humbled themselves in their errors, would
have confessed and retracted them, and by an active, though
a late repentance, have endeavoured to redeem them. But,
my Lords, since they had neither sagacity nor foresight,
neither justice nor humanity, to shun these oppressive calami-
ties ; since not even severe experience can make them feel,
nor the imminent ruin of their country awaken them from
stupefaction, the guardian care of Parliament must interpose."

In November, 1777, than which no session of Parliament
since the Revolution of 1688, teemed with events more awful
to England, the King from his throne said, —

" It is a great satisfaction to me that I can have recourse to
the wisdom of my Parliament in this conjuncture, when the
continuance of the rebellion in North America demands our
most serious attention. The powers which you have entrusted
me with, for the suppression of this revolt, have been faithfully
exerted ; and I have a just confidence that the conduct and
courage of my officers, and the spirit and intrepidity of my
forces, both by sea and land, will, under the blessing of
Divine Providence, be attended with important success :
but I am persuaded that you will see the necessity of pre-
paring for such further operations as the contingencies of the
war, and the obstinacy of the rebels may render expedient ;
and if I should have occasion to increase them, by contracting
any new engagements, I rely on your zeal and public spirit to
enable me to make them good.

" I receive repeated assurances from foreign powers of their
pacific dispositions. My own cannot be doubted." — " I will
steadily pursue the measures in which we are engaged for the
re-establishment of that constitutional subordination, which,
with the blessing of God, I will maintain through the several
parts of my dominions : but I shall ever be watchful for an

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 395

opportunity of putting a stop to the effusion of the blood of my
subjects, and the calamities which are inseparable from a state
of war. And I still hope, that the deluded and unhappy multi-
tude will return to their allegiance ; and that the remembrance
of what they once enjoyed, the regret for what they have lost,
and the feelings of what they now suffer, under the arbitrary
tyranny of their leaders, will rekindle in their hearts a spirit of
loyalty to their sovereign, and of attachment to their mother-
country ; and that they will enable me, with the concurrence
and support of my Parliament, to accomplish what I shall con-
sider the greatest happiness of my life, and the greatest glory
of my reign, the restoration of peace, order, and confidence
to my American colonies." Or, in plain English, — to see
America prostrate at my feet. Yes ! from thousands of
mouths was uttered at that time this insulting maxim — ' A repeal
of our right to tax America cannot be thought of till she is
humbled at Lord North's feet ! ' And what was that time,
to which we refer ? It was when Burgoyne's army had, thirty
days before this speech, laid down their arms, and surrendered
to the deluded American militia ! *

A great majority of the House of Peers voted triumphantly
a nattering address — 97 to 28 — replete with terms of appro-
bation, thanks, and loyal promises. The House of Commons
sung to the same tune ; Parliament adjourned, and its gratified
members, and the no less gratified King, enjoyed the festive
recess, while the unfortunate Burgoyne, with the remnants of
his fine army, passed a sad Christmas on the snow-covered
hills now within my sight ; and in the same joyous season
America ratified her alliance with France. Previously to the
British " holy-days " festivity, Lord Chatham said to his com-

* The speech was delivered November 18, 1777. Burgoyne sur-
rendered on the 17th of October, preceding. After most of his bravest
officers were killed, and nearly half his army, the rest laid down their
arms, and were marched to this town of Cambridge, where they were
cantoned, until Congress ordered them to Virginia, where they re-
mained to the time of their embarkation for England and for Germany.

396 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

peers, in a voice of thunder, — " My Lords ! this is a ruinous
and ignominious situation, where we cannot act with success,
nor suffer with honor ; which calls upon us to remonstrate in
the strongest and loudest language of truth, to rescue the ear
of majesty from the delusions which surround it. The con-
quest of English America is an impossibility. What is
your present situation there ? We do not know the worst ;
but we know, that in three campaigns we have done nothing,
and suffered much. Besides the suffering, perhaps a total loss
of the northern army."

Early in the month of December, 1777, intelligence arrived
of the total loss of the northern army ; showing a more ca-
lamitous state of things than even the sagacity of Lord Chatham
had predicted. The truth could no longer be concealed.
Lord North, with deep marks of dejection, and even tears,
acknowledged the extent of the disaster, and said that, though
unfortunate, his intentions were ever just and upright; that he
had been, in a manner, forced Into an office, which he would
now willingly and gladly resign, could his resignation facilitate
the obtaining that peace and recoiiciliation for which he had
ever earnestly wished. Lord George Germaine bore the
mortification with more marks of stoicism, saying, in terms of
humiliation, that he should be ever ready to submit his con-
duct to the judgment of that House. Honest Lord North had
been less used to misfortune and disgrace than Minden's hero,
and therefore obtained rather more generous pity from the
opposition.

When the catastrophe at Saratoga was communicated to
Parliament, a long and profound silence ensued. Amazement
and consternation seemed to pervade the house. At length a
strong torrent of invective, with taunts bitter and sarcastic,
gushed forth from the leaders of the opposition against all the
authors of the calamity, save the principal one. They de-
nounced the pride, the ignorance, and the incapacity of the
planners, counsellors, and ministers of measures which had
occasioned more calamity and disgrace to the nation, than had

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 397

ever befallen the arms of Britain in her most disastrous war.
Such was the feeling in their House of Representatives. It
was the same in the House of Lords, but mingled with more
signs of bitter resentment from deeper wounds of pride. The
people out of doors appeared absolutely confounded.* Not
being yet directed what to think, they knew not what to say,
or how to act. The public for a time, stood idly and stupidly
gazing on that portentous meteor which, rolling from the west,
blackened all their horizon, and seemed about to burst upon
them ! But what were the feelings of the King ? — the author
of this calamity and disgrace ! We must gather that from the
conduct of " his Friends ;" for suppression and concealment
of his feelings was a distinguishing trait in the character of
George the Third, and was mistaken for dignity by " his
friends," and perhaps by himself.

Notwithstanding the awful lesson from this side of the Atlan-
tic, the self-deluded sovereign soon signified his resolution to
persevere in the war against America. He resolved to try
again the men-market in Germany. Means were also taken to
obtain addresses from the mercantile towns of Liverpool, Man-
chester, and several less considerable places in England ; and
from the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. These
places evinced their feelings by each raising a full regiment
for the use of his Majesty. It is remarkable, that while the
king could raise ovAy five thousand troops by private subscrip-
tion in England, ten thousand were raised in affectionate Scot-
land. In this extraordinary crisis of their national affairs, the
crown contrived to have an unusually long recess of Parliament,
so that when it convened, the tide of ministerial influence from
its lowest ebb appeared to be rising again ; and when it attain-
ed its wished for height, the absolute subjugation of America
was renevvedly urged in harsher notes than ever.

After the re-assembling of Parliament, the Commons re-
solved themselves into a committee of the whole on the state

* The author was then an inhabitant of London.

398 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

of the nation, when the capacious-minded and very energetic
Charles Fox laid it down as an incontrovertible axiom, that
" It was impossible for any country to fall , ivithin so feiv years,
from the high pitch of power and glory which we had done,
without some radical error in the government ; " — " that
the present calamitous state of the nation was evidently to be
traced to the blind obstinacy and wretched incapacity of its
ministers, who ivould not listen to any overtures of con-
ciliation, and who could not carry into effect any plan of
coercion."

Members of Parliament, Peers and Commons, use the terms
ministers and ministry theoretically, as they ought in England,
where the sovereign is made irresponsible by their constitution,
in order to prevent meeting him again on the scaffold, or in the
field of blood, while the ministers are the scape-goats by law es-
tablished. In these United States it is directly the reverse.
The Chief Magistrate is answerable for every measure, and his
secretary of State, or prime minister, for none. We, there-
fore, when speaking of the attempt to tax us, without our con-
sent, and of the consequent warfare, substitute the term King, for
that of ministry. All kings are obstinate from the very nature
their office. Should it be said that George the Third was con-
stitutionally obstinate, the term might possibly bear the con-
strained meaning of an equivoque from the tongue of flattery ;
I therefore substitute what cannot be twisted awry, — that King
George the Third, grandson and successor of George the
Second, was, by his peculiar idiosyncrasy, a very obstinate,
cold-hearted man, rendered more so by an unfortunate ed-
ucation, partly Scotch, but chiefly German, with but little
more of the English cast of character than a general sense of
justice, and a correct course of domestic and personal morals.
When he came unexpectedly to the throne, by the sudden
death of his father and grandfather, it was hardly possible
that his mind could have been stored with the requisite portion
of the science of English government. It must have had
blanks on the most important parts of government. His

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 399

knowledge of America was entire blank — an hiatus valde
dejlendus : yet these blanks were hastily filled up, by his
mother and Lord Bute, with indelible ink. What could be
expected from an honest, dull young man, with no poetry
or music within him, thus situated and circumstanced ? " He
is strictly honest," says his governor, Earl Waldegrave, " but
wants that frank and open behaviour, which makes honesty
appear amiable." This distinguished nobleman, and favorite
of George the Second, confesses that his task was irksome,
and that his spirit and patience were at last exhausted ; — that
the mother and the nursery always prevailed, and to them and
Lord Bute, it seems, the destined king of Great Britain was
left. And he closes his interesting memoirs with this sombre
picture of envied grandeur. " The constant anxiety and fre-
quent mortifications, which accompany ministerial employments,
are tolerably understood ; but the world is totally unacquainted
with the situation of those whom fortune has selected to be
constant attendants and companions of royalty, who partake of
its domestic amusements and social happiness. But I must
not lift up the veil ; and shall only add, that no man can have
a clear conception how great personages pass their leisure
hours, who has not been a prince's governor, or a king's fa-
vorite."

Under the early influence of gossiping conversation, how
could a raw, inexperienced, unguarded youth acquire mag-
nanimous maxims of state ? He could not obtain them from
such a pedlar in politics as Lord Bute, a man void of the least
spark of genius, whose constant effort was to make superficies
appear solids, and who, with an air of profound wisdom, litter-
ed the young monarch's head with trifles, mechanical knick-
nacks, and pretty pictures of colored natural history, and
systematic botany, baubles, and gimcracks, or varied his
nonsense with little tricks of chemistry, the gazing-traps of
simpletons, and the ridicule of every legitimate son of science.
Had Prince George a single spark of gayety or fun in his
composition, it must have excited ridicule of the teacher, gen-

400 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

erating contempt, more fatal to education and kingly govern-
ment than even fear or hntred.

The domestic companions and instructers of the king, una-
ble to corrupt his honest heart, or mend it, only hardened it,
and warped his young understanding with the falsest notions of
men, of things, and of himself. He was taught to believe that
men, horses, and dogs, for which Old England was famous,
degenerated in America, where nature belittles every thing,
save venemous reptiles and noisome insects, and where pejo-
rated human nature would naturally approximate the savage,
unless restrained by the maternal care and guardianship of
henevolent Britannia.

George the Third carried Lord Bute's routine of solemn
trifling pretty much through life. He actually deemed it im-
portant to lead his two eldest sons to the love of agriculture,
in which they were practically instructed at Windsor to sow,
reap, thresh, grind, and sift wheat, to the completion of bread-
making. The process of beer-making, and all the curiosities
of the brewery, were well known to all his laughter-loving
subjects. His rearing the finest breed of merino sheep, ob-
tained him the pleasing title of the Royal Shepherd ; and the
sale of such as his Majesty did not choose to keep at Windsor,
by public auction, at which Sir Joseph Banks presided, and
superintended their delivery, — was all so amiably innocent, so
simply honest, guileless, and entirely divested of tbe dangerous

•

Bonapartean passion, ambition, that I marvel not at the very
exalted character given to the sovereign by the poet-laureate,
and by almost all the clergy of the eslablisbed church ; for,
though trifling in his objects, it does not appear that he was
irreligious or cruelly revengeful in his nature, and we charitably
hope that, when very wrong, he mistook wrong for right.

* Peter Pindar,* with his matchless powers of ridicule, could never
have set both hemispheres a laughing, had he selected for the subjects
of it, either the late King George the Fourth, or the present monarch
of England, William IV.

* Dr. Wolcott.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 401

Nevertheless, he must have been the primary and efficient
cause of the movement in the secret and irresponsible cabinet
after February, 1772; for at that period the Dowager died.*
By its operation, two systems of administration were formed,
one in the real secret and confidence, the other merely osten-
sible, to perform the official and executory offices of the state.
" This Court Faction,'''' to use the words of Mr. Burke,
" proceeded gradually, but not slowly, to destroy every thing of
strength which did not derive its principal nourishment from the
immediate pleasure of the Court.'''' — " In the beginning of each
arrangement, no professions of confidence and support are
wanting, to induce the leading men to engage. But while the
ministers of the day appear in all the pomp and pride of power,
while they have all their canvass spread out to the wind, and
every sail filled with the fair and prosperous gale of royal
favor, they find, they know not how, a current which sets di-
rectly against them, which prevents all progress, which even
drives them backwards. That the cabal may be enabled to
compass all the ends of its institution, its members are scarcely
ever to aim at the high and responsible offices of state. They
are distributed with art and judgment through all the secondary
but efficient departments of office, and through the households
of all the branches of the Royal family. Like Janissaries,
they derive a kind of freedom from the very condition of their
servitude. The name by which they choose to distinguish
themselves is that of the King's Friends." f In the No-

f It is easily conceivable, that such a cunning arrangement was
within the ability of a shrewd woman, whose cast of mind and habits
approximated nearer to those of Mary Queen of Scots than to those of
Queen Elizabeth ; and that, when once established, this imperium in
imperio could be sustained, after her death, by the special aid of Charles
Jenkinson, the quondam private secretary of Lord Bute, the confidential
adviser of the King and of his Queen Charlotte, the principal spoke
in the primary wheel of that internal machinery or clock, to which we
have often alluded, and of which the public saw only the face, with its
cuckoo, the Duke of G .

f " Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontents."
51

402 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

vember session of Parliament, 1779, the Marquis of Rocking-
ham, instead of the usual servile echo to the King's speech,
moved in the House of Peers an amendment, " to beseech
his Majesty to reflect upon the extent of territory, power, and
opulence, — of reputation abroad and concord at home, which
distinguished the opening of his Majesty's reign, and marked it
as the most splendid and happy period in the history of this na-
tion ; and to turn his eyes on the present endangered, impov-
erished, and distracted state of the empire; and to state to
his Majesty, that if any thing can prevent, the consummation of
public ruin, it can be only new counsels and new counsellors,
a real change, from the conviction of past errors, and not a
mere palliation, which must prove fruitless.'"

Did ever a crowned king receive a more severe and solemn
rebuke ? Considering whom it was from, and where delivered,
it was a severer denouncement than the American Declaration
of Independence, and, one would think, too serious to be made
the subject of a monarch's laughter.

In the House of Commons a similar amendment to the
Address was moved by Lord John Cavendish ; a sharp debate
ensued, in which Charles Fox was distinguished by his bold-
ness. He said that it was not the mere rumor of the streets
that the king was his own minister ; but that the fatal truth was
too evident to be denied by the members of the administration ;
— that it was a doctrine in the highest degree dangerous, to
transfer the responsibility of the minister to a personage who
could not, by the principles of the constitution, be called to an
account." *

Nor was this all. Mr. Dunning, f in grand committee of
the whole House, proposed that it should be resolved, — that
" the Influence of the Crown had increased, was increasing,
and ought to be diminished" This motion was warmly sup-

* This defect in the British constitution is wisely remedied in the
constitution of these United States,
f Lord Ashburton.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 403

ported by the Speaker of the House of Commons, who,
though rarely accustomed to take part in their debates, de-
clared that, " on an occasion like the present, he should deem
himself criminal in remaining silent ; that the resolution pro-
posed contained an allegation which was too notorious to
require proof, — which, in its full extent, did not admit oi
proof. It could be known only to members of that House,
as they were the only persons competent to resolve it. They
were bound as jurors, by the conviction arising in their own
minds, and were obliged to determine accordingly. The
powers constitutionally vested in the executive part of the gov-
ernment, were amply sufficient for all the purposes of good
government, but its undue influence had increased to a degree
absolutely incompatible with every just idea of a limited mon-
archy ; — that they were sitting as the representatives of the
people, solely for their advantage and benefit, and were pledged
to them for the faithful discharge of their trust."

Another occurrence deserves recording. Earl Goiver,
President of the Council, was a most strenuous supporter of
the administration, and remarkable for his acrimonious and
intemperate opposition to the opinions of Lord Chatham. But
at this time, more than a year after that nobleman's death, he
testified his change of sentiment, and said " that he had pre-
sided some years at the council-table, where he had seen such

THINGS PASS, THAT NO MAN OF HONOR OR CONSCIENCE COULD

any longer sit there." This is speaking stronger language
than that used by Lord Camden on the same subject. He only
said that he often at the council hung down his head with shame.

In such a humiliating state of things, as it regarded the Su-
preme Executive, George the Second would have retired to
Hanover, and left the whigs of England to choose a King with
sentiments more congenial to their own.

The war against America commenced in 1775, and con-
tinued eight years, during which the arms of the United States so
far prevailed as to conquer two British armies, one in the north,
commanded by General Bu/goyne, the other in the south,

404 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

commanded by Earl CornwalKs. The people of England,
once so fierce for war against us, now clamored for peace.
But the king would not listen to it j and it was said that when
Lord North told his royal master that he must make peace
with America, the King, in a fit of fretfulness, was so overcome
with passion as to utter the word impeachment.

The dignitaries of the church, almost to a man, and the
Episcopal clergy generally, made much use of the personal,
private, and pious character of the King, and zealously propa-
gated the doctrine that the moral and religious character of a
King was the circumstance most to be prized by his subjects ;
and when the Prince of Wales grew up, the contrast between
the father and the son was industriously and malevolently re-
marked by the " King's friends," and every courtier. This
was the universal language in Canada and Nova Scotia. Mr.
Heron, in a note to a passage of the Letter of Junius to the
King, speaking of his goodness, virtue, and discretion, says —
" How else should he have triumphed over the unpopularity
which it was so industriously striven to excite against him,
the first twelve years of his reign ? How else should he have
retained the fond attachment of his people, amid the disasters
of the American war ? Is it not the force of character that
has preserved him so much more favor with a nation than his
eldest son ? " This writer has not been too well informed on
this subject. Neither George the First, Second, nor Fourth,
ever met with so many marks of popular hatred and disgust
as George the Third, in going to and returning from Parliament.

It is not worth while for flattery to eulogize the royal
character, when such men as Sir George Saville, the Aris-
tides of Britain, held this public language to his constituents.*
"I at length return to you, with hardly a ray of hope of
seeing any change in the miserable course of public calam-
ities. On this melancholy day of account, in rendering up to
you my trust, I deliver to you your share of a country maimed

* Sir George Saville was member for the rich county of York.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 405

and weakened, its treasure lavished and misspent, its honors
laded, and its conduct the laughing-stock of Europe ; our
nation in a manner without allies or friends, except such as we
have hired to destroy our fellow-subjects, and to ravage a coun-
try in which we once claimed an invaluable share.

" Forbearing as well the forward promises as the superficial
humbleness of phrase in use on these occasions, I make it a
solemn duty to lay before you, without disguise or palliation,
the present state of your concerns, as they appear to me, and
the gloomy prospect which lies before us. Some have been
accused of exaggerating the public misfortunes — nay, of hav-
ing endeavoured to help forward the mischief, that they might
afterwards raise discontents. I am willing to hope that neither
my temper nor my situation in life will be thought naturally to
urge me to promote misery, discord, or confusion, or to exult
in the subversion of order, or the ruin of property. Trust
not, however, to my report : reflect, compare, and judge for
yourselves. But under all these disheartening circumstances,
I could yet retain a cheerful hope, and undertake again the
commission with alacrity as well as zeal, if I could see any
effectual steps taken to remove the original cause of the mis-
chief: THEN THERE WOULD BE A HOPE. Till the purity of

the constituent body, and thereby that of the representatives,
be restored, there is none. I look upon restoring election
and representation in some degree — for I expect no miracles —
to their original purity, to be that without which all other efforts
will be vain and ridiculous."

The King of England had not a more respectable subject in
point of character and influence than Sir George Saville, and
what he said was like a body falling from a great height. Its
impression was deep and lasting. Had the people of England
more reason to rise up against the conduct of King Charles
the First, than against the obstinate conduct of George the
Third ? His pertinacity and their forbearance are wonders in
the history of England. Who can be surprised at the sharp
pen of Junius in lieu of a keener instrument ? It was the indi-

40G CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

redness of the attack upon English liberty through the sides of
America, which preserved the third George from the greatest
personal calamity. Lord Chatham, and a few more real
Whigs were sensible that, in this respect, America was,
during eight long years, a battered shield held up to protect
even Britannia from the uplifted hand of tyranny. It was not
the greatest of misfortunes that England had such a phlegmatic
man to succeed George the Second, — a man rather too good
for another public warning to deluded monarchs ; and not wise
enough to be borne with patient dignity. There must be
something rotten in the state of England, to generate such a
condition of things, and to excite such universal discontent.
George the Third, though born in London, was altogether
German. There was no John- Buttery about him. No — his
friend, the strong-spoken Lord Thurlow, monopolized that
character even to its dregs.

On the ISth of October, 1781, Earl Cornwattis surren-
dered his army at Yorktown to General Washington. The
second session of the new Parliament commenced the 27th of
the following November, when the King, alluding to that disas-
ter, declared in his speech, that " he retained a firm confidence
in the protection of Divine Providence, and a perfect con-
viction of the justice of his cause ; and called for the
concurrence of Parliament in a vigorous, animated, and
united exertion of the faculties and- resources of his

PEOPLE."

Upon this strange language from the Throne, under these
disastrous events and circumstances, a respectable and candid
historian* remarks, that the whole speech was plainly indica-
tory of a fixed and resolute determination to prosecute a war,
of which it might well be supposed that "fools as gross as
ignorance made drunk" might by this time have seen the
hopelessness and the absurdity.

This extraordinary speech underwent as severe animadver-
sion as the rules of Parliament would allow, particularly from

* Memoirs of the Reign of George the Third, by W. Belsham, vol. iii.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 407

Charles Fox, who said that " he and many others expected
to hear on this occasion his Majesty declare from the Throne,
that he had heen deceived, and imposed upon by misinfor-
mation and misrepresentation ; that in consequence of his
delusion, the Parliament had been deluded, but that now the
deception was at an end ; that instead of requesting the Par-
liament to devise the most speedy and efficacious means of
putting an end to the public calamities, they had heard a
speech breathing little else than vengeance, misery, and blood.
Those who were ignorant of the personal character of the
Sovereign, and who imagined the speech to originate with
him, might be led to suppose that he was an unfeeling despot,
rejoicing in the horrid sacrifice of the liberty and lives of his
subjects, who, when all hope of victory was vanished, still
thirsted for revenge. The ministers, said he, who advised this
speech, are a curse to the country over the affairs of which
they had too long been suffered to preside." *

William Pitt, the younger, said on this occasion, " That the
duty he owed his Sovereign and his country compelled him to
exert every effort to prevent the House from precipitately vot-
ing an address, which pledged them to the support of that fatal
system which had led this country, step by step, to the most
calamitous and disgraceful situation to which a once flourishing
and glorious empire could be reduced. Was it becoming the
Parliament of a free people to echo back the words which a
minister, long practised in the arts of delusion, had dared
to put into the royal mouth ? He implored the House not to
vote for an address fraught with treachery and falsehood,
which could not have been framed by any who felt for the
honor of the King, the dignity of Parliament, or the interest
of the nation."

The Duke of Richmond said, in the House of Peters, that
the misfortunes of the country were owing to that wretched
system of government which had been early adopted in the
reign of his present Majesty, and to the influence of that In-

* Ibid.

408 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

terior Cabinet, which had been the ruin of the country ;
and he recalled to the recollection of the House the memora-
ble declaration of the Earl of Chatham, " that he was duped
and deceived, and that he had not been ten days in the cabinet
before he felt the ground rotten under his feet."

Yet flattering addresses were voted in both Houses, by great
majorities.

On the 12th of December Sir James Lowther said that
"the late speech from the Throne had given a just alarm to
the nation ; it had shown them that the ministers were deter-
mined to persevere in the American war, — that more blood,
and more money were to be lavished in this fatal contest ; the
men invested with the powers of government derived no ad-
vantage from experience, — the surrender of one army only
gave them spirit to risque a second, and the surrender of the
second only instigated them to venture a third. There was no
end of loss and of madness."

Mr. Poivys, a distinguished leader of that respectable body
of men, denominated in England the country gentlemen, fol-
lowed in the same track, and said that the war with the Colo-
nies was the idol of his Majesty's [ministers;] they had bowed
before it themselves, and made the nation bow. The conduct
which at the commencement might be denominated firmness,
had now degenerated into obstinacy; an obstinacy which
called upon all honest and independent men to desert the
present administration, unless a change of measures were
adopted.

General Burgoyne took the same side in the debate, and
acknowledged that " he was now convinced the principle of the
American war was wrong, though he had not been of that
opinion when he engaged in the service. Passion and preju-
dice," said he, " and interest were now no more, and reason and
observation had led him to a very different conclusion: and he
now saw that the American war was only one part of a sys-
tem levelled against the constitution, and the general rights of
mankind."

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 409

The Secretary for " the American department " Lord
George Germaine, stated to the House that the ministry in-
tended to change the plan of the war, and not send another
army to supply the place of that just captured at Yorktown ;
but only to preserve such posts in America, as might facilitate
and co-operate with the enterprises of their fleet. This called
up that firm and faithful patriot, Sir George Saville, who said
that he had not heard the King's speech on its first delivery ;
but when it reached him in his retirement, he read it with
horror. We are given to understand, said he, that a change
is to be made in the mode of conducting the American war.
The ministers do not intend to prosecute it in the same manner
as before. — Why? Because they could not, if they would.
He ridiculed in the most pointed manner, the mean, futile,
servile, empty-sounding echoes of the King's speeches. He
said the ministers had lost the two hands of the empire in the
prosecution of this frantic and ineffectual war. By a continu-
ance of it they would risque the head. Such a conduct
resembled, if it did not indicate, the violence of insanity.

General Conway declared himself anxious for the return of
the fleets and armies from America. As to the idea now sug-
gested, of a war of posts, he asked — what garrisons would be
able to maintain them, when it was well known that even Sir
Henry Clinton did not consider himself safe at New York ?

Mr. Pitt reprobated, with an eloquence resembling that of
his illustrious father, this renewal of the war on a new plan, as
a species of obstinacy bordering upon madness. Nor was the
noble city of London silent on this solemn topic. In their
petition to the King they implore his Majesty to dismiss from
his presence and councils all the advisers, both public and
secret, of the measures pursued and contemplated.

After the King in high displeasure had turned his back on
the unfortunate Burgoyne for not performing impossibilities, he
thought fit to reward Lord George Germaine with a peerage,
which was considered an insufferable indignity to the House

of Peers, and an outrageous insult to the public. Lord Abing-

410 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ton said of him, " What has that person done to merit honors
superior to his fellow citizens ? His only claim to promotion
was, that he had undone his country by executing the plan of
that cursed invisible though efficient cabinet, from whom as he
received his orders, so he had obtained his reward." Before
the great seal was affixed to the patent, the Marquis of Car-
marthen moved in the House of Peers, " that it was highly
derogatory to the honor of that House, that any person
laboring under the sentence of a court martial, styled in the
public orders issued by his late Majesty, l a censure much
worse than death,' and adjudged unfit to serve his Majesty in
any military capacity, should be recommended to the Crown
as a proper person to sit in that House." Lord George Ger-
maine, who had actually taken his seat, rose up and denied the
justice of the sentence passed upon him, and affirmed " that
he considered his restoration to the Council Board, at a very
early period of the present reign, as amounting to a virtual
repeal of that iniquitous verdict."

The Duke of Richmond said that he himself was present at
the battle of Minden, and could have proved that the time
lost, when Lord George Germaine delayed to advance was not
less than one hour and an half, and that his Lordship's cavalry
were a mile and a quarter only from the scene of action. Lord
Southampton, who was aid-de-camp to Prince Ferdinand on that
memorable day, and delivered the message of his Serene High-
ness to Lord G. Germaine, vindicated the equity of the sentence.

Yet such was the overwhelming influence of the Sovereign,
and the servility of ninety-three Lords, against twenty-eight, that
the " Minden hero " enjoyed a seat in the House of Lords, as a
Peer I and it appeared that he never enjoyed himself much out
of that House, or at a distance from St. James's.

Wellbore Ellis, next to Charles Jenkinson, was the most
busy, steady, and efficient member of the secret and invisible
cabinet. His great zeal in the prosecution of Mr. Wilkes,
gave birth to this striking passage in Junius " — " The mine
was sunk, combustibles provided, and Wellbore Ellis, the Guy

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 4H

Faux of the fable, waited only for the signal of command," —
which exquisite graphical description gave birth to a satirical
engraving, entitled " Gun-powder Plot " ; in which Mr. Ellis
was drawn with a lantern, setting fire to the combustibles, pre-
pared for blowing up the Constitution ; and Lord Bute in the
back ground, with a truncheon in his hand, giving the word of
command.

On the King's raising our old enemy Lord George Germaine
to the peerage, Wellbore Ellis was appointed to fill his place
as Secretary for the American Department. He informed the
House of Commons, in February 1782 — that now [since the
capture of Earl Cormoallis and his army] the war was to be
carried on against America on a more contracted scale, and
that hostilities were to be prosecuted by means very dissimilar
from the past. That " the unhappy faction in America, which
still continued its resistance to the government of this kingdom,
though less numerous than the party of the royalists, could only
be rooted out by pushing the war with vigor against France.
In order to obtain peace with America we must vanquish the
French ; and as in the late war [that carried on by Lord
Chatham] France had been said to be conquered in Germa-
ny } — go in this America must be conquered in France " ! —
Here is a specimen of the wisdom and of the information of
a member of the interior cabinet. This strange speech of Mr.
Ellis called forth the indignation and contempt of the all-sensi-
tive Burke, who said " that the honorable gentleman was
indeed an old member, but a young Secretary — that hav-
ing studied at the feet of Gamaliel, he had entered into full
possession of all the parliamentary qualifications, by which his
predecessor had been so conspicuously distinguished ; — the
same attachments, the same antipathies, the same extrava-
gant delusion, the same wild phantoms of the brain, marked
the Right Hon. gentleman as the true ministerial heir and res-
iduary legatee of the noble viscount ; and notwithstanding the
metamorphosis he had recently undergone, he was so truly the
same thing in the same place, that justly might it be said of

412 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

him, " 'Alter et idem nascitur" Being of the caterpillar spe-
cies, he had remained the destined time within the soft and
silken folds of a lucrative employment, till having burst his
ligaments, he fluttered forth the butterfly minister of the day."

On General Conway's motion " for an address to the King,
earnestly imploring his Majesty, that he would be graciously
pleased to listen to the humble prayer and advice of his faithful
Commons, that the war on the continent of North America
might no longer be pursued, for the impracticable purpose of
reducing that country to obedience by force," Mr. Ellis op-
posed it by a very long speech, of which we have given a
short specimen, not much to the credit of the speaker, on the
score of information. He was, however, a man of talents and
industry, ingenious in evading, palliating, explaining away, and
straining precedents. He could magnify trifles, and trace simil-
itudes where none ever existed, and deny and assert when the
proofs were not within reach : on the whole, he was a very use-
ful member of the secret cabinet, a junto, described, or rather
alluded to by Junius, in as bitter a paragraph as ever issued
from the pen of that matchless writer, viz.

" Without attempting to account for all the political changes,
which have happened since his Majesty's auspicious accession
to the Throne, it requires but little sagacity to observe that the
general principle, from which they have arisen, is uniform and
consistent with itself. A Prince of the house of Brunswick
searches for consolation and endearments of private sociality
and friendship in the loyal hearts of Jacobites, Tories, and
Scotchmen; — a devout Prince, whose sincere, unaffected piety
would have done honor even to Charles the First, intrusts the
public government of his affairs to Grafton, North, Halifax, and
Sandwich. The first choice naturally led to the second. The
private convivial hours of Jonathan Wild * were happily unbent
in the company of the lower adepts in pilfering and petty

* A notorious highwayman, and captain of a gang of thieves, cele-
brated by Fielding.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 4] 3

larceny. In public, he resumed his state, and never appeared
without an attendant knot of highwaymen and assassins."

Junius never penned a more impertinent, if not impudent
paragraph, than this against the Sovereign, his ostentible, and
his secret counsellors. It was contained in a letter to the
printer, Dec. 20, 1770, and signed Domitian, and concludes
thus — "Give me leave, Mr. Wood fall, to ask you a serious
question. How long do you think it possible for this manage-
ment to last ? How long is this great country to be governed
by a boot and a petticoat ? — by the infamous tools of a Scotch
exile, and her Royal Highness the Princess Doivager of Wales'?
— by North, Ellis, Barrington, Jenkinson, Hillsborough, Jerry
Dyson, and Sandwich ? — I will answer you with precision. It
will last, until there is a general insurrection of the English
nation, or until the house of Bourbon have collected their
strength and strike you to the heart."

Junius, under the same recognised signature of "Domi-
tian," Jan. 17, 1771, says — "His Majesty, God bless him !
has now got rid of every man whose former services or present
scruples could be supposed to give offence to her Royal High-
ness the Princess Dowager of Wales. The security of our
civil and religious liberties cannot be more happily provided for
than while Lord Mansfield pronounces the law, and Lord
Sandwich represents the religion of St. James's. Such law
and such religion are too closely united to suffer even a momen-
tary intervention of common honesty between them. Her Royal
Highness' scheme of government, formed long before her hus-
band's death, is now accomplished. She has succeeded in
disuniting every party, and dissolving every connexion ; and,
by the mere influence of the Crown, has formed an adminis-
tration, such as it is, out of the refuse of them all.

" There are two leading principles in the politics of St.
James's, which will account for almost every measure of gov-
ernment since the King's accession. The first is, that the
prerogative is sufficient to make a lackey a prime minister, and
to maintain him in that post, without any regard to the welfare

414 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

or to the opinion of the people. — The second is, that none but
persons insignificant in themselves, or of tainted reputation,
should be brought into employment. Men of greater conse-
quence and abilities will have opinions of their own, and will
not submit to the meddling, unnatural ambition of a mother,
who grasps at unlimited power, at the hazard of her son's de-
struction. They will not suffer measures of public utility,
which have been resolved upon in council, to be checked and
controlled by a secret influence in the closet. Such men con-
sequently will never be called upon but in cases of extreme
necessity. When that ceases, they find their places no longer
tenable."

How consonant is all this to what we have related of the
Earl of Chatham, and to what he himself said in the House of
Peers, respecting the secret influence, or that influence behind
the Throne, greater than the Throne itself.

We have said already that when the Princess Dowager of
Wales found she could not make a Solomon of her son, she
resolved to make him a Joseph. Her wish was to marry him
to one of the Princesses of the Saxe-Gotha family; but
George the Second opposed it, saying he had enough of that
already. He strongly recommended a Princess of Bruns-
wick, for the transcendency of her person and mind ; but the
Dowager was opposed to her as an unfit character for her
sober and phlegmatic son, and signified that such a brilliant
woman would influence George entirely, which idea militated
against her policy ; and so they adopted a middle course, and se-
lected Princess Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz. Mons.
Le Montagnard Parvenu says that " Heaven, through the in-
termediate agency of the new Secretary of State, Lord Bute,
pointed out that Princess for Queen." She was a woman of
safe qualities of person, mind, and conduct, not but what she
had her opinions, and occasional influence in the interior cabi-
net, where her esteemed Mr. Jenkinson was not the least of
its influential members.*

* Charles Jenkinson, late Lord Liverpool, was Solicitor General to
the Queen, and greatly confided in by her Majesty.

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 415

The royal mother had probably a perfectly correct idea of
her son's character — a young man of a slow but sure under-
standing, of obtuse feelings as it regarded himself and others
about him, with more mathematics in his composition, than
poetry or music, and commonly obtaining a clear insight
into men and things within a narrow compass. She inculcated
with entire success the church common-prayer book, and all
the mechanical parts of good breeding becoming a perfect gen-
tleman. Had his male instructors been equally successful, it
might have been better for the realm, and happier for its mon-
arch. It seems to us that he had never been wisely instructed
in the royal prerogative, down through a long succession of
English Kings. That a young monarch ignorant of the world
and of himself, should incline his ear to the maxims of the
house of Stuart, and to those of Saxe-Gotha, where the sove-
reignty is property, and not magistracy as in England, is not much
to be wondered at. The intoxicating view of the kingly power
as displayed in English law books, is illusive ; there his sacred
Majesty is said to be absolute ruler of the State ; supreme judge
among its inhabitants ; sole owner of its land ; commander of
its forces ; representative of its existence abroad ; fountain of
its honors — immortal, infallible, everywhere present, and in-
capable of doing or meaning wrong ; and to be a corporation
sole.* The distinguished personage invested with such mighty
authority is a mere creature of legal theory ; his power in
practice is checked ; his defects are supplied in various ways ;
he cannot act in any way without some adviser, and some
instrument answerable for what is done, which makes the
power, in the law book stated to be supreme, in practice
exceedingly limited. In a word, this British sovereignty,
though an ideal creature, places the King high beyond all com-
petition. Hence it is that there is no Christian monarch who
is approached with so many tokens of veneration and respect,
bordering upon awe, as the Kings of Great Britain, even since

* See Edinburgh Review for October, 1830, article VIII. Growth of
the Royal Prerogative. By John Allen.

416 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

the revolution of 1688. Their footmen or body attendants are
noblemen, and the waiting-maids of their Queens a species of
nobility.

The sovereign power of Great Britain is a first-rate man of
war, and the most potent ship of the line : — call her, if you
please to excuse the jumble of sexes, the Royal George in all
its gallant trim, bearing at her mast-head the emblem of sove-
reignty with gorgeous decorations — a triple set of officers and
a numerous crew, ample stores and warlike equipments — a
rapidly moving battery of the heaviest cannon exceeding in
number most forts of stone ; a sort of tremendous thunder cloud ;
a mischief, undreamt of in Greece and Rome, and beyond their
poet's imagination or philosophy's credibility ; a beauty to gaze
at — at once the pride, nay, perfection of human art and power,
whether we contemplate its construction, arrangement, and econ-
omy, or its management to its destined end, by bridling the winds,
and making air and water obedient to man's command, while it
pours forth fire and destruction, thunder and lightning, on its en-
emies, itself being in safety. To complete the wonder, the whole
is carried rapidly through the trackless ocean in the darkest
night, by the inscrutable influence of a little stone to all appear-
ance worthless, giving a fresh instance that, in the affairs of men,
Providence uses the smallest and most contemptible means to
operate the greatest and most powerful effects. Such is the
splendid emblem of the constitutional power of a British King and
ministry, the pride of man and the perfection of Art, that distin-
guishing attribute of human nature. Yet are the Commons, that is,
the people, the Water-, without which the Royal George cannot
stir an inch, and which they can at any time draw off by denying
supplies, and leave this eighth wonder of the world, aground, ab-
solutely immoveable, with no power beyond that of cannon and
musquet shot, — to perish, an object of commiseration and
tears, rather than of fear and reverence. Such a thing is but a
costly pageant, without its origin and support, water, that ele-
ment which enters into everything in a growing state, that refresh-
es, recruits, and makes fruitful, and which when extracted, that

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 417

thing perishes and crumbles to dust. If such were not the
condition and the fate of Charles the First of England, and
Louis the Sixteenth of France, I have read their history to little
advantage. — I write for my countrymen.

It is difficult and hazardous to pronounce on the compound
character of a king. We must compare kings with one ano-
ther, and not with men in lower and less exposed stations. The
late President Jefferson, for whose memory I retain a very great
respect without subscribing to all his opinions, says of them
in a letter to General Washington dated Paris, May 2, 1788 —
" I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Eu-
rope. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen
what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these
countries which may not be traced to their king as its source,
nor a good which is not derived from the small fibres of repub-
licanism existing among them. I can further say with safety,
that there is not a crowned head in Europe whose talents or
merits could entitle him to be elected a vestry man by the peo-
ple of any parish in America."

In a letter from the same distinguished character to Gov-
ernor Langdon of New Hampshire, in 1810, he says, —
" When I observed that the King of England was a cipher, I
did not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual
now on the throne. The practice of kings marrying only
into the family of kings, has been that of Europe for some
centuries. Now, take any race of animals, confine them in
idleness and inaction, whether in a stye, a stable, or a state
room, — pamper them with high diet, gratify all their appetites,
immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let every
thing bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them
to think, and in a few generations they become all body and
no mind ; and this, too, by a law of nature — by that very law
by which we are in the constant practice of changing the char-
acters and propensities of the animals we raise for our own pur-
poses. Such is the regimen in raising kings, and this is the

way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often

418 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then
reigning sovereigns of Europe. Lewis the Sixteenth was a
fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite of the answers made
for him at his trial. The king of Spain was a fool ; of Naples
the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched
two couriers a week, 1000 miles, to let each other know what
game they had killed the preceding days. The King of Sar-
dinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The queen of
Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature ; and so was the
king of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the
powers of government. The king of Prussia, successor to
the great Frederic, was a mere hog, in body as well as in
mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph of Austria, were
really crazy, and George of England, you know, was in a strait
waistcoat.

" There remained, then, none but old Catharine, who had
been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In
this state Bonaparte found Europe j and it was this state of its
rulers which lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals
had become without mind and powerless ; and so will every
hereditary monarch be after a few generations. Alexander,
the grandson of Catharine, is yet an exception. He is able
to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His
race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings,
from all of which the Lord deliver us."

Although we must not set aside the moral character of public
men in forming an estimate of their merits, yet there is danger
of allowing too much weight, when good or when bad. John
Wilkes was represented by the courtiers, even by Lord Sand-
wich, as too bad to live at large, and his sovereign as too good
not to be, in a degree, worshipped. Yet see how these things
operate. Had Wilkes possessed a character as good as Sir
George Saville's, that, together with his cause, the pen of Ju-
nius, the eloquence of Chatham and of Charles Fox, would have
placed George the Third where Charles the Tenth of France
now is. The domestic character of the British King, his decency

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 419

and decorum, his assenting conversation, and general becoming
behaviour gave great weight to whatever he deliberately pro-
nounced, whether from the throne, at the reception of ambas-
sadors, or at the levee. Yet Junius * places this to little ac-
count, by an artful, and I had like to have said, malignant allusion
to the characters of King Edward the Second, and Richard
the Second, two among the worst kings of England. After
saying that George the Third, for many months, heard nothing
from his people but the language of complaint, he adds, that it
was the daily triumph of his courtiers that he heard it with an
indifference approaching to contempt. He subjoins ; "On a
prorogation of parliament, the members retire into summer
quarters, and rest from the disgraceful labors of the campaign ;
but it is not so with the sovereign, he has a permanent
existence ; he cannot withdraw himself from the complaints,
the discontents, the reproaches of his subjects ; they pursue him
to his retirement, and invade his domestic happiness." Junius
adds with as much bitterness as ability these sarcastic remarks —
" A new system has not only been adopted in fact, but profess-
ed upon principle. Ministers are no longer public servants of
the state, but the private domestics of the sovereign. One
particular class of men are permitted to call themselves " the
King's friends ." as if the body of the people were the king's
enemies ; or as if his majesty looked for a resource or consola-
tion in the attachment of a few favorites, against the general
contempt and detestation of his subjects. Edward and Rich-
ard the Second made the same distinction between the collec-
tive body of the people, and a contemptible party who sur-
rounded the throne. The event of this mistaken conduct
might have been a warning to their successors. Yet the errors
of those princes were not without excuse. They had as many
false friends as George the Third, and infinitely greater tempta-
tions to seduce them. They were neither sober, religious, nor
demure. Intoxicated with pleasure, they wasted their inherit-
ance in pursuit of it. Their lives were like a rapid torrent,

* Letter XXXIX.

420 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

brilliant in prospect, though useless or dangerous in its course.
In the dull, unanimated existence of other princes, we see
nothing but a sickly, stagnant water, which taints the atmo-
sphere without fertilizing the soil. The morality of a king is
not to be measured by vulgar rules. His situation is singular.
There are faults that do him honor, and virtues that disgrace
him. — A faultless, insipid equality in his character, is neither
capable of vice nor virtue in the extreme. — Secluded from the
world, attached from his infancy to one set of persons, and
one set of ideas, he can never open his heart to new connexions,
nor his mind to better information. A character of this sort is
the soil fittest to produce that obstinate bigotry in politics and
religion, which begins with a meritorious sacrifice of the under-
standing, and finally conducts the monarch and the martyr to
the block.

" At any other period, I doubt not the scandalous disorders
which have been introduced into the government of all the
dependencies in the empire would have roused the attention of
the public. The odious abuse and prostitution of the prerog-
ative at home, the unconstitutional employment of the military,
the arbitrary fines and commitments by the House of Lords,
and Court of King's Bench, the mercy of a chaste and pious
prince extended cheerfully to a wilful murderer, because that
murderer is the brother of a common prostitute, would I think,
at any other time, have excited universal indignation. But
the daring attack upon the constitution, in the Middlesex elec-
tion, makes us callous and indifferent to inferior grievances.
No man regards an eruption upon the surface when the noble
parts are invaded, and he feels a mortification approaching to
his heart." *

* See Junius to the Duke of Grafton, Letter VIII, on the King's par-
doning Edward McQuirk for the murder of George Clark. McQuirk
had been active in a mob at Brentford, on the ministerial side in the
election of Wilkes, and bis pardon was very generally execrated,
while the King would not grant a pardon to the twin brother of Daniel
Perreau (a man in gay life condemned for forgery) who was in no

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 421

From what has been said, collected from Junius, and other
high authorities, the American reader will be able to see in a
narrow compass, the causes of that discontent of the people of
England, which commenced soon after the accession of King
George the Third, and prevailed, more or less, from that period
to the time when he was compelled, sorely against his will, to
relinquish the contest with America ; because he could find no
man of sufficient hardihood to become his minister for carrying
it on. After the capture of the second army, under Earl Corn-
wallis, the least gleam of success in Georgia or in the Carolinas,
gave fresh hopes, and renewed force to the monarch's ruling

way implicated in the crime ; but perjured himself to save, as he hoped,
his brother Robert from the gallows. This gentleman was a respectable
practitioner of physic in London, kept his carriage, had numerous friends,
and was much esteemed. Though condemned as an accessary, no one
believed that he would be hanged for a lie. But the public were disap-
pointed. The pity excited by Dr. Perreau's hard fate was universal, and
his execution was deeply deprecated. The indignation, horror, and dis-
gust at the moving sight of the two twin brothers swung off holding each
other by the hands, in despite of the earnest intercession of thousands,
were loud, deep, and universal. The feeling in the individual, who denied
the prayer of the people, was not akin to that which impelled Junius
Brutus to order the execution of his own son. It was nearer that of
Pharaoh, whose hardness of heart brought plagues innumerable upon
the land he misgoverned. I would not deprive a merciful king of a jot
of praise merited. George the Third granted a pardon to a certain sex-
ton and his partner " a resurrection-man" who were under sentence to
be whipped round the bounds of a parish, for taking from a grave the
body of a female for one of his best customers to dissect. The anato-
mist who employed the man was physician to the Queen, a Scotch-
man, and a distinguished favorite in the royal family, having admirable
powers of mimetical story-telling, which he often exercised to the great
diversion of thefrst man in the realm. The Doctor upon his knees most
earnestly implored the pardon of these men, urging that the streets were
filled with people ready to tear the culprits to pieces for a deed to them
so abhorrent, but necessary to him as a teacher, being, by the king's ap-
pointment, anatomical lecturer to the Royal Academy of painting ; and
the offenders were pardoned accordingly, however singular in the history
of Royal grace !

422 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

passion, the subjugation of America, and his imagined fruits of
a rich revenue. But alas ! the shortsightedness of man, and
the miscalculation of princes ! — The Alchymists of the middle
ages sought for gold and found gun-powder, and so it happened
with George the Third in his dreams of riches to be drawn from
America. I however put a more charitable construction on most
of the errors of the king than Junius has. I believe that the seeds
of insanity had sprouted earlier than the ministry, or the peo-
ple generally, were apprized of. In 1781, if I am not mistaken
by a year, the king turned over two leaves of his largely writ-
ten speech from the throne without ever knowing it. The
hearers were surprised at its brevity, and the minister mortified.
Several members of Parliament in the year 1782, used freely
the word insanity, and William Pitt the younger, speaking of
the renewal of the war, called it a species of obstinacy, border-
ing upon madness ; and so did Sir George Saville.

Such were the sentiments of the most illustrious of the Eng-
lish nation, respecting the great American Question, and the
conduct of the King. It would be a departure from justice if
we did not record our own complaints, and the reasons of our
resistance and final separation from Great Britain, as deliber-
ately and solemnly proclaimed in our Declaration of Inde-
pendence.

" The history of the present king of Great Britain,

is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in
direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over
these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid
world.

" He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome
and necessary for the public good.

" He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of im-
mediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their
operation, till his assent should be obtained ; and when so sus-
pended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has
refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 423

right of representation in the legislature ; a right inestimable
to them, and formidable to tyrants only.

" He has called together legislative bodies at places un-
usual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of
their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures.

" He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for
opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of
the people.

" He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions,
to cause others to be elected ; whereby the legislative
powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people
at large, for their exercise ; the state remaining, in the mean
time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and
convulsions within.

" He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these
states ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization
of foreigners ; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropria-
tions of lands.

" He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing
his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

" He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for
the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of
their salaries.

" He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither
swarms of officers, to harass our people, and eat out their
substance.

" He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies,
without the consent of our legislatures.

" He has affected to render the military independent of, and
superior to the civil power.

" He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdic-
tion foreign to our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our
laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation ;
" For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us :

424 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

" For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment
for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants
of these states :

" For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world :
" For imposing taxes on us without our consent :
" For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial
by jury :

" For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretend-
ed offences :

" For abolishing the free system of English laws in a
neighbouring province, establishing therein an arbitrary gov-
ernment, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it
at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the
same absolute rule into these colonies :

" For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valu-
able laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our
governments :

" For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.

" He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of
bis protection, and waging war against us.

" He has plundered our seas, ravaged out coasts, burnt our
towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

" He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and
tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and per-
fidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally
unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

" He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on
the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become
the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall them-
selves by their hands.

" He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and
has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,
the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare

CHARACTER AND POLICY OF GEORGE III. 425

is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and con-
ditions.

" In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for
redress in the most humble terms : our repeated petitions have
been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose
character is thus marked by every act which may define a ty-
rant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

We have recorded the accusation or allegation against
George the Third, our former king, as manifested to the
world July 4, 1776, by the representatives of the American
people in Congress assembled, in the form of a solemn Decla-
ration of our Independency. Lest it should appear to contain
too deep marks of resentment, we think it fair, in our justifi-
cation, to record also the sentiments of an illustrious English-
man, we mean the great reformer Junius, respecting the
general conduct of his sovereign, as nobly expressed in his
famous Letter to the King, in order to show that we were
not the only subjects of that monarch who had cause of com-
plaint, and that the Whigs, on both sides of the Atlantic, were
animated by the same sacred principle of liberty.

We ask the reader to set before his chastened imagination
the character and person of any and every one of those to
whom the authorship of this far-famed address has been attrib-
uted : and after fixing in his mind the dignity of the scene,
let him ask himself whether he can admit any one of them to the
honor of being the Mentor to a good-intentioned, moral, but mis-
guided king ; and whether our original hypothesis (for we claim
to have made the discovery, by induction,) be not reconcilable
to his feelings and judgment, viz. that Lord Chatham was this
venerable father advising a son. The picture has impressed my
imagination nearly forty years — an Aristotle advising, admonish-
ing, and controlling an Alexander; — aMagus respectfully, kindly
advising, and conscientiously admonishing a young, inexperi-
enced Eastern king — a monarch with an honest heart, a very
confined horizon, and surrounded with bad examples. To

426 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

express our ideas mythologically ; — it was Minerva in the shape
of Mentor, cautioning, advising, and lamenting over his beloved
Telemachus, who was left in his cradle to be educated by his
mother and other women, while his knight-errant of a father
was roaming over the world in search of renown.

Upon this idea of a venerable sage and most eminent states-
man, exceeding all others in political knowledge, native talents,
matchless industry, happy eloquence, tried integrity, disinter-
ested patriotism, unsullied morals, proud honor, and courage
of all kinds, is there not a congruity, a naturalness, and consis-
tency throughout the whole procedure of Junius towards the
king, and towards worse men ? Him he treats with constitu-
tional regard and respect, while he takes the dissecting scalpel to
others, whom, after exposing their morbid condition, he has pre-
served as so many dried preparations for the instruction of those
ministers and courtiers who shall come after them. No man
hitherto guessed to be Junius will bear our test. Weighed in
the balance, they have all been found wanting. During nearly
forty years I have scanned them all, after my first suspicion
that the celebrated eulogy on Lord Chatham in the fifty-fourth
letter of Junius was a se.pse portrait. This our opinion frees
us from innumerable difficulties which incumber every other hy-
pothesis, every one else marring the noble picture. Our hypoth-
esis would read well in poetry, look well upon canvass, and still
better in chaste history, provided the idea of a conscientious Re-
former be never, for a moment, lost sight of, and that of a malig-
nant satirist and cowardly assassin be put entirely out of the
question. The deep disease — the something rotten in the state of
Britain, called loudly for such a Hercules in politics ; and his
salutiferous deeds have been, and long will be, operative in
these United States, and are actually now operating good in
the best part of Europe.

It is a saying almost proverbial, that heavenly inspiration has
ceased in these latter days. I do not believe it. I believe
that the inspiration of the Almighty still giveth extraordinary
understanding : — nor can I ever believe that Columbus, Chat-

JUNIUS TO THE KING. 427

ham, and Napoleon gave to themselves those superior powers
of mind, which have effected, and are still effecting, mighty
changes in the affairs of men. — But I keep the reader too
long from the sight of a solid structure, which, like some of the
venerable temples of antiquity, would have been debased by
a profusion of ornament.

the Printer of the Public Advertiser.*

" 19 December, 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 consideration must yield to the security of the sove-
reign, and to the general safety of the state. There is a mo-
ment 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 gra-
cious, well-intentioned Prince, made sensible at last of the
great duty he owes to his people, and of his own disgraceful
situation : that he looks round him for asistance ; and asks
for no advice, but how to gratify the wishes, and secure the
happiness of his subjects. In these circumstances, it may be
matter of curious 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 surmounted ; that he feels himself animated by
the purest and most honorable affections to his King and coun-
try ; and that the great person whom he addresses has spirit
enough to bid him speak freely, and understanding enough to
listen to him with attention. Unacquainted with the vain irn-

* Letter XXXV.

428 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

pertinence of forms, he would deliver his sentiments with dig-
nity and firmness, but not without respect."

" Sir,

" It is the misfortune of your life, and originally the cause of
every reproach and distress which has attended your govern-
ment, that you should never have been acquainted with the
language of truth, until you heard it in the complaints of your
people. It is not, however, too late to correct the error of
your education. We are still inclined to make an indulgent
allowance for the pernicious lessons you received in your
youth, and to form the most sanguine hopes from the natural
benevolence of your disposition.* We are far from thinking
you capable of a direct, deliberate 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 dishonorable to your character, we should

" * The plan of tutelage and future dominion over the heir apparent,
laid many years ago at Carleton- Mouse, between the Princess Dowa-
ger and her favorite the Earl of Bute, was as gross and palpable, as
that which was concerted between Anne of Austria and Cardinal Ma-
zarin, to govern Lewis the Fourteenth, and in effect (o prolong his
minority until the end of their lives. That prince had strong natural
parts, and used frequently to blush for his own ignorance and want of
education, which had been wilfully neglected by his mother and her
minion. A little experience, however, soon showed him how shamefully
he had been treated, and for what infamous purposes he had been kept
in ignorance. Our great Edward, too, at an early period, had sense
enough to understand the nature of the connexion between his aban-
doned mother and the detested Mortimer. But, since that time, hu-
man nature, we may observe, is greatly altered for the better. Dowa-
gers 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 the mischiefs and disgraces of the present reign took life and mo-
tion. From that moment, Lord Bute never suffered the Prince of
Wales to be an instant out of his sight We need not look farther."

JUNIUS TO THE KING. 429

long since have adopted a style of remonstrance very distant
from the humility of complaint. The doctrine inculcated by our
laws, that the King can do no wrong, is admitted without 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 condi-
tion, or that of the English nation, would deserve most to be
lamented. I would prepare your mind for a favorable recep-
tion 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 sep-
arate your person from your government, so you, in your
turn, should distinguish between the conduct which becomes
the permanent dignity of a King, and that which serves
only to promote the temporary interest and miserable ambition
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, 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 favorite Prince, the native
of their country. They did not wait to examine your conduct,
nor to be determined by experience ; but gave you a generous
credit for the future blessings of your reign, and paid you in
advance the clearest 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 your-
self. Banish from your mind those unworthy opinions, with
which some interested persons have labored 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 min-

430 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

isters, favorites, and relations : and let there be one moment
in your life, in which you have consulted your own under-
standing.

" When you affectedly renounced the name of Englishman,
believe me, Sir, you were persuaded to pay a very ill-judged
compliment to one part of your subjects, at the expense of
another. While the natives of Scotland are not in actual re-
bellion, they are undoubtedly entitled to protection ; nor do I
mean to condemn the policy of giving some encouragement to
the novelty of their affections for the House of Hanover. I am
ready to hope for every thing from their new-born zeal, and
from the future steadiness of their allegiance. But, hitherto,
they have no claim to your favor. To honor them with a de-
termined predilection and confidence, in exclusion of your
English subjects, who placed your family, and in spite of
treachery and rebellion have supported it, upon the throne,
is a mistake too gross, even for the unsuspecting generosity of
youth. In this error, we see a capital violation of the most
obvious rules of policy and prudence. We trace it, however,
to an original bias in your education, and are ready to allow
for your inexperience.

" 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 accession to the throne, the whole system
of government was altered j not from wisdom or deliberation,
but because it had been adopted by your predecessor. A little
personal motive of pique and resentment was sufficient to
remove the ablest servants of the Crown ; * but it is not in
this country, Sir, that such men can be dishonored by the

"* 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 recommended by Lord Bute. This was
the reason publicly assigned by his Lordship."

JUNIUS TO THE KING. 431

frowns of a king. They were dismissed, but could not be
disgraced. Without entering into a minuter discussion of the
merits of the peace, we may ohserve, in the imprudent hurry
with which tiie first overtures from France were accepted, in
Mhe conduct of the negotiation and terms of the treaty, the
strongest marks of that precipitate spirit of concession with
which a certain part of your subjects have been at all times
ready to purchase a peace with the natural enemies of this
country. On your part, we are satisfied that every thing was
honorable and sincere ; and, if England was sold to France,
we doubt not that your Majesty was equally betrayed. The
conditions of the peace were matter of grief and surprise to
your subjects, but not the immediate cause of their present dis-
content.

" Hitherto, Sir, you had been sacrificed to the prejudices
and passions of others. With what firmness will you bear the
mention of your own ?

" A man, not very honorably distinguished in the world, com-
mences an attack upon your favorite ; considering nothing, but
how he might best expose his person and principles to detesta-
tion, and the national 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 favor. Like ano-
ther chosen people, they have been conducted into the land of
plenty, where they find themselves effectually marked, and di-
vided from mankind. There is hardly a period at which the
most irregular character may not be redeemed. The mistakes
of one sex find a retreat in patriotism ; those of the other, in
devotion. Mr. Wilkes brought with him into politics, the same
liberal sentiments by which his private conduct had been di-
rected ; and seemed to think that, as there are few excesses in
which an English gentleman may not be permitted to indulge, the
same latitude was allowed him in the choice of his political prin-
ciples, and in the spirit of maintaining them I mean to state,

432 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

not entirely to defend, his conduct. In the earnestness of his
zeal, he suffered some unwarrantable insinuations to escape
him. He said more than moderate men would justify ; but
not enough to entitle him to the honor of your Majesty's per-
sona] resentment. The rays of royal indignation, collected
upon him, served only to illuminate, and could not consume.
Animated by the favor of the people on one side, and heated
by persecution on the other, his views and sentiments changed
with his situation. Hardly serious at first, he is now an en-
thusiast. The coldest bodies warm with opposition, the hard-
est 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 thing still more disgraceful, we have seen, for
such an object, the utmost influence of the executive power,
and every ministerial artifice, exerted without success. Nor
can you ever succeed, unless he should be imprudent enough
to forfeit the protection of those laws to which you owe your
crown, or unless your ministers should persuade you to make
it a question of force alone, and try the whole strength of gov-
ernment in opposition to the people. The lessons he has re-
ceived from experience, will probably guard him from such
excess of folly ; and, in your Majesty's virtues, we find an
unquestionable assurance, that no illegal violence will be at-
tempted.

" Far from suspecting you of so horrible a design, we would
attribute the continued violation of the laws, and even this last
enormous attack upon the vital principles of the constitution,
to an ill-advised, unworthy, personal resentment. From one

JUNIUS TO THE KING. 433

false step you have been betrayed into another ; and, as the
cause was unworthy of you, your ministers were determined
that the prudence of the execution should correspond 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 unhappy, that you can neither do wrong without
ruin, nor 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 people ; 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 a dishonor to the
conduct of the piece.

" The circumstances to which you are reduced will not ad-
mit of a compromise with the English nation. Undecisive,
qualifying measures, will disgrace your government still more
than open violence ; and, without satisfying the people, will
excite their contempt. They have too much understanding
and spirit to accept of an indirect satisfaction for a direct injury.
Nothing less than a repeal, as formal as the resolution itself,
can heal the wound that has been given to the constitution, nor
will any thing less be accepted. I can readily believe, that
there is an influence sufficient to recall their pernicious vote.
The House of Commons undoubtedly consider their duty to
the crown as paramount to all other obligations. To us they
are only indebted for an accidental existence, and have justly
transferred their gratitude from their parents to their benefac-
tors 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 de-

434 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

graded to a condition so vile and abject, that, compared with
it, the present estimation they stand in is a state of honor and
respect, consider, Sir, in what manner you will afterwards
proceed. Can you conceive that the people of this country
will long submit to be governed by so flexible a House of
Commons ? It is not in the nature of human society, that any
form of government, in such circumstances, can long be pre-
served. 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 pres-
ent 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 dissolving
the parliament.

" Taking it for granted, as I do very sincerely, that you
have personally no design against the constitution, nor any
view inconsistent with the good of your subjects, I think you
cannot hesitate long upon the choice which it equally concerns
your interest and your honor to adopt. On one side, you haz-
ard the affections of all your English subjects ; you relinquish
every hope of repose to yourself, and you endanger the estab-
lishment of your family for ever. All this you venture for no
object whatsoever, or for such an object as it would be an af-
front to you to name. Men of sense will examine your con-
duct with suspicion ; while those who are incapable of com-
prehending to what degree they are injured, afflict you with
clamors 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 unhappy ; and this, perhaps, is the only political
truth which he ought to be convinced of without experiment.
But, if the English people should no longer confine their re-

JUNIUS TO THE KING. 435

sentment to a submissive representation of their wrongs ; if,
following the glorious example of their ancestors, they should
no longer appeal to the creature of the constitution, but to that
high Being who gave them the rights of humanity, whose gifts
it were sacrilege to surrender, let me ask you, Sir, upon what
part of your subjects would you rely for assistance ?

" The people of Ireland have been uniformly plundered and
oppressed. In return, they give you every day fresh marks
of their resentment. They despise the miserable governor
you have sent them,* because he is the creature of Lord Bute ;
nor is it from any natural confusion in their ideas, that they are
so ready to confound the original of a king with the disgraceful
representation of him.

" The distance of the Colonies would make it impossible 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 be-
tween you and your ministers. They complained of an act of
the Legislature, but traced the origin of it no higher than to
the servants of the crown : they pleased themselves with the
hope that their sovereign, if not favorable to their cause, at
least was impartial. The decisive personal part you took
against them, has effectually banished that first distinction from
their minds. f They consider you as united with your servants

" * Viscount Townshend, sent over on the plan of being resident
Governor. The history of his ridiculous administration shall not be
lost to the public."

" f In the king's speech of 8 November 1768, it was declared, ' That
the spirit of faction had broken out afresh in some of the Colonies ;
and, in one of them, proceeded to acts of violence and resistance to
the execution of the laws ; that Boston was in a state of disobedi-
ence to all law and government, and had proceeded to measures sub-
versive of the constitution, and attended with circumstances that
manifested a disposition to throw off their dependence 1 on Great
Britain.' "

436 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

against America ; and know how to distinguish the sove-
reign and a venal parliament on one side, from the real
sentiments of the English people on the other. Looking for-
ward to independence, they might possihly receive you for
their king ; but if ever you retire to America, be assured they
will give you such a covenant to digest, as the Presbytery of
Scotland would have been ashamed to offer to Charles the
Second. They left their native land in search of freedom,
and found it in a desert. Divided as they are into a thousand
forms of policy and religion, there is one point in which they

all agree : they equally detest the pageantry of a king, and

the supercilious 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 sup-
port : You have all the Jacobites, Nonjurors, Roman Catho-
lics, and Tories, of this country ; and all Scotland, without
exception. Considering from what family you are descended,
the choice of your friends has been singularly 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 en-
emies. 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 ancestors, 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
language which distinguish them as a party, and to fight under
the banners of their enemies ? Their zeal begins with hypoc-
risy, and must conclude in treachery. At first they deceive ;
at last they betray.

JUNIUS TO THE KING. 437

" As to the Scotch, I must suppose your heart and under-
standing so biassed from your earliest infancy, in their favor,
that nothing less than your oivn misfortunes can undeceive you.
You will not accept of the uniform experience of your ances-
tors, and, when once a man is determined to believe, the very
absurdity of the doctrine confirms him in his faith. A bigotted
understanding can draw a proof of attachment to the house of
Hanover, from a notorious zeal for the house of Stuart, and
find an earnest of future loyalty in former rebellions. Appear-
ances are, however, in their favor : 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 s in their
present professions, as if you were, in reality, not an English-
man, but a Briton of the North. You would not be the first
prince, of their native country, against whom they have rebel-
led, nor the first whom they have basely betrayed. Have you
forgotten, Sir, or has your favorite concealed from you that
part of our history, when the unhappy Charles (and he too had
private virtues) fled from the open, avowed indignation of his
English subjects, and surrendered himself at discretion to the
good faith of his own countrymen ? Without looking for sup-
port in their affections as subjects, he applied only to their
honor as gentlemen, for protection. They received him as
they would your Majesty, with bows, and smiles, and falsehood,
and kept him until they had settled their bargain with the
English parliament ; then basely sold their native king to the
vengeance of his enemies. This, Sir, was not the act of a few
traitors, but the deliberate treachery of a Scotch parliament,
representing the nation. A wise prince might draw from it
two lessons of equal utility to himself. On one side, he might
learn to dread the undisguised resentment of a generous peo-
ple, who dare openly assert their rights, and who, in a just
cause, are ready to meet their sovereign in the field. On the
other side, he would be taught to apprehend something far more

438 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

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 understanding. You take the sense of the
army from the conduct of the guards, with the same justice
with which you collect the sense of the people from the repre-
sentations of the ministry. Your marching regiments, Sir, will
not make the guards their example, either as soldiers or sub-
jects. They feel, and resent, as they ought to do, that invaria-
ble, undistinguishing favor, with which the guards are treated ; *
while those gallant troops, by whom every hazardous, every
laborious service is performed, are left to perish in garrisons
abroad, or pine in quarters at home, neglected and forgotten.
If they had no sense of the great original duty they owe their
country, their resentment would operate like patriotism, and
leave your cause to be defended by those to whom you have
lavished the rewards and honors 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.

" * The number of commissioned officers in the guards are to the
marching regiments as one to eleven ;..... the number of regiments
given to the guards, compared with those given to the line, is about
three to one, at a moderate computation : consequently, the partiality
in favor of the guards is as thirty-three to one So much for the offi-
cers The private men have four-pence ' a day to subsist on ; and five

hundred lashes, if they deseit. Under this punishment they frequently
expire. With these encouragements, it is supposed they may be de-
pended upon, whenever a certain person thinks it necessary to butcher
his fellow-subjects."

JUNIUS TO THE KING. 439

" On this side, then, which ever way you turn your eyes,
you see nothing but perplexity and distress. You may deter-
mine to support the very ministry who have reduced your af-
fairs to this deplorable situation : you may shelter yourself under
the forms of a parliament, and set your people at defiance. But
be assured, Sir, that such a resolution would be as imprudent
as it would be odious. If it did not immediately shake your
establishment, it would rob you of your peace of mind for ever.

" On the other, how different is the prospect ! How easy,
how safe and honorable, is the path before you ! The English
nation declare they are grossly injured by their representatives,
and solicit your majesty to exert your lawful prerogative, and
give them an opportunity of recalling a trust which they find
has been scandalously abused. You are not to be told, that
the power of the House of Commons is not original, but dele-
gated 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 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
party then remains, but to leave it to the people to determine
for themselves ? They alone are injured ; and, since there is
no superior power to which the cause can be referred, they
alone ought to determine.

" I do not mean to perplex you with a tedious argument
upon a subject already so discussed that inspiration could hardly
throw a new light upon it. There are, however, two points of
view, in which it particularly imports your majesty to consider
the late proceedings of the House of Commons. By depriving

440 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

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 follow-
ed the example of the Long Parliament, which first declared
the regal office useless, 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 con-
veyed that right to another. They have set aside a return as
illegal, without daring to censure those officers who were par-
ticularly apprized of Mr. Wilkes's incapacity, not only by the
declaration of the House, but expressly by the writ directed
to them, and who nevertheless 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
transferred the right of election from the collective to the re-
presentative body ; and by these acts, taken separately or to-
gether, they have essentially altered the original constitution of
the House of Commons. Versed, as your majesty undoubt-
edly 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 opinion, I confess, not

JUNIUS TO THE KING. 44 A

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 clamors against
your government, without offering any material injury to the
favorite cause of corruption.

" You have still an honorable part to act. The affections of
your subjects may yet be recovered. But before you subdue
their hearts, you must gain a noble victory over your own.
Discard those little, personal resentments, which have too long
directed your public 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 of mercy, but
of contempt. He will soon fall back into his natural station....
a silent senator, and hardly supporting the weekly eloquence
of a newspaper. The gentle breath of peace would leave him
on the surface, neglected and unremoved. It is only the tem-
pest that lifts him from his place.

" Without consulting your minister, call together your whole
council. Let it appear to the public, that you can determine
and act for yourself. Come forward to your people. Lay
aside the wretched formalities of a king, and speak to your
subjects with the spirit of a man, and in the language of a gen-
tleman. Tell them you have been fatally deceived. The ac-
knowledgement will be no disgrace, but rather an honor, to
your understanding. Tell them you are determined to remove
every cause of complaint against your government ; that you
will give your confidence to no man who does not possess the
confidence of your subjects ; and leave it to themselves to de-
termine, 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 invaded by the present House of Com-

442 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

mons, and the constitution betrayed. They will then do justice
to their representatives and to themselves.

" These sentiments, Sir, and the style they are conveyed in,
may be offensive, perhaps, because they are new to you. Ac-
customed to the language of courtiers, you measure their af-
fections by the vehemence of their expressions ; and when
they praise you indirectly, 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 affec-
tions are founded upon a principle of personal attachment.
The first foundation of friendship is not the power of confer-
ring benefits, but the equality with which they are received,
and may be returned. 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 favorite, and in that favorite 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 the principle of allegiance equally solid and rational 5 — fit for
Englishmen to adopt, and well worthy of your Majesty's en-
couragement. We cannot long be deluded by nominal distinc-
tions. The name of Stuart, of itself, is only contemptible ;....
armed with the sovereign authority, their principles are formi-
dable. The prince, who imitates their conduct, should be
warned by their example ; and, while he plumes himself upon
the security of his title to the crown, should remember that,
as it was acquired by one revolution, it may be lost by another.

" JUNIUS."

LORD SHELBURNE REPINES AT INDEPENDENCY. 443

This address appears to us, at this distance of time and
space, remarkably dignified, benevolent, respectful, and preg-
nant with wisdom. Had it been communicated privately, a
prudent king, situated and circumstanced like George the
Third, would have sought the wise man out and listened to his
advice ; like Pharaoh, who finding Joseph more wise and
holy than any around him, hastened to place him at the head
of his affairs.

Whatever had been said of inflexibility of character in
the King, the public saw little or nothing of it after the
provisional articles of peace with America were signed. He
said to his parliament in December. 1782 — "That he had
lost no time in giving the necessary orders for prohibiting of-
fensive operations against America, and had been directing his
views to a cordial reconciliation with the Americans. Such
being his own inclination, and such the sense of his parliament
and people, he had not hesitated to conclude with them pro-
visional articles of peace, by which they were acknowledged
free and independent states. He deplored this dismemberment
of the empire, which had become a matter both of policy and
prudence ; but testified a hope that religion, language, interest,
and affection, would yet prove a permanent tie of union be-
tween the two countries."

Lord Shelburne, who made the peace, declared that he had
exerted every effort to preserve America to Britain ; that he
had not voluntarily yielded up this independency, but merely
submitted to the controlling power of necessity and fate; and
added — " It was not I that made this cession. It was the evil
star of Britain. It was the blunders of a former administra-
tion. It was the power of revolted subjects, and the mighty
arms of the house of Bourbon." In this, Earl Shelburne
felt like Chatham. After the peace with America, George the
Third found himself surrounded by Whigs, with the son of Lord
Chatham for prime minister, and the principles of Junius
triumphant !

444 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

One parting glance at America ! General Washington made
his public entry into the cit}^ of New York in 1782, amid the
acclamations of his grateful countrymen. He then repaired
to Congress, and on a clay appointed for that ceremony, he,
addressing the President, " asked leave to surrender into their
hands the trust committed to him, and, having finished the
work assigned him, to retire from the great theatre of action to
the tranquil scenes of private life ; earnestly recommending to
the protection of Almighty God the interests of his dear
country, and those who had the superintendence of them to
his holy keeping."

The President replied — " The United States in Congress
assembled, receive with emotions too affecting for utterance the
solemn resignation of the authority under which you have led
our troops ivith success through a perilous and doubtful war.
Called upon by your country to defend its invaded rights, you
accepted the sacred charge before it had formed alliances, and
whilst it was without friends or a government to support you. —
You have conducted the great military contest with wisdom and
fortitude, invariably regarding the rights of the civil power
through all disasters and changes ; — you have, by the love and
confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled them to display their
martial genius, and transmit their fame to posterity. Having
defended the standard of liberty in this new world, having
taught a lesson useful to those ivho inflict, and to those tvho
feel oppression, you retire with the blessings of your country ;
but the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your mil-
itary command, it will continue to animate remotest ages.

" May the Almighty foster a life so beloved, with his pecu-
liar care, and may your future days be as happy as your past
have been illustrious." *

* Mr. Belsham, who is freer from mistakes respecting American
matters than any other British historian, Gordon excepted, speaking
of the sad fate of Major Andre, a young British officer every way unfit
for a spy, says— that the high character of the American commander
would have derived additional lustre from indulging the earnest and

JOHN ADAMS'S FIRST AUDIENCE WITH THE KING. 445

In June, seventeen hundred and eighty-five, John Adams, the
first minister plenipotentiary from the United States to the
court of London, had his introductory audience with King
George the Third. An event so extraordinary with circum-
stances so novel to us in America, led Mr. Adams to narrate
the particulars, in a letter to an intimate friend ; which
was kept private till after the death of that good man. It was
thus ;

" At one o'clock on Wednesday, 1st of June, the master of
ceremonies called at my house, and went with me to the Sec-
retary of State's office in Cleaveland-row, where the Marquis
of Carmarthen received me, and introduced me to Mr. Frazier,
his under Secretary, who had heen, as his Lordship said, un-
interruptedly in that office, through all the changes in adminis-
tration for thirty years, having first been appointed by the Earl
of Holderness.

" After a short conversation upon the subject of importing
my effects from Holland, which Mr. Frazier himself introduc-

sole request of Major Andre to die as a soldier, not as a felon. The
fact was (I had it from several officers of rank and high character),
Washington would not venture to risk the indulgence, and merged
his personal feelings in necessity. The British had hung three or four
American officers as spies with no regard to their feelings as gentle-
men. When it was whispered in camp that Andre would be shot, there
was a general expression of discontent, progressing to clamor. The offi-
cers said — ' What ! — shall we risk our lives, as several of us have done,
and some be taken and hanged like dogs, and shall a detected British
spy meet a milder fate ? ' Alarming resignations would have been the
consequence.

That celebrated fault-finder Horace Walpole relates an anecdote of
Washington when a young officer, at the time of Braddook's defeat in
1754 ; whom he states to have said that the whistling of balls ivas grateful
music to his ears; and applies to him the epithet of braggart. Such an
idle story was told in this country, which induced the Rev. Dr. Gordon
the historian, to ask the truth of it from the General himself, who re-
plied — "I do not recollect having ever said any thing like it ; but if I
did, T must have been very young indeed." \ had this from Gordon
himself.

446 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

ed, Lord Carmarthen invited me to go with him in his coach
to court. When we arrived in the ante-chambers, the master
of ceremonies introduced me, and attended me while the Sec-
retary of State went to take the commands of the king. While
I stood in this place, where it seems all ministers stand upon
such occasions, always attended by the master of ceremonies,
the room was very full of ministers of state, bishops, and all
other sorts of courtiers, as well as the next room, which is the
king's bed-chamber. You may well suppose I was the focus
of all eyes. I was relieved, however, from the embarrassment
of it, by the Swedish and Dutch ministers, who came to me
and entertained me with a very agreeable conversation during
the whole time. Some other gentlemen whom I had seen be-
fore, came to make their compliments too, until the Marquis of
Carmarthen returned, and desired me to go with him to his
Majesty. I went with his lordship through the levee-room into
the king's closet. The door was shut, and I was left with
his Majesty and the Secretary of State alone. I made the
three reverences ; one at the door, another about half way,
and the third before the presence — according to the usage es-
tablished at this, and all the northern courts of Europe ; — and
then I addressed myself to his Majesty in the following
words ;

" ' Sire — The United States have appointed me Minister
Plenipotentiary to your Majesty ; and have directed me to de-
liver to your Majesty this letter, which contains the evidence of
it. It is in obedience to their express commands, that I have
the honor to assure your Majesty of their unanimous disposi-
tion and desire to cultivate the most friendly and liberal inter-
course between your Majesty'' s subjects and their citizens, and
of their best wishes for your Majesty' 's health and happiness, and
for that of your f ami y.

" ' The appointment of a minister from, the United States to
your Majesty's court will form an epoch in the history of Eng-
land and America. I think myself more fortunate than all
my fellow-citizens, in having the distinguished honor to be the

MR. ADAMS'S ADDRESS, AND THE KING'S REPLY. 447

first to stand in youfMajcsty's royal presence in a diplomatic
character ; and I shall esteem myself the happiest of men if I
can be instrumental in recommending my country more and
more to your Majesty's royal benevolence, and of restoring an
entire esteem, confidence, and affection : or, in better words, " the
old good nature and the good old humor" between people, who,
though separated by an ocean, and under different governments,
have the same language, a similar religion, a kindred blood. I beg
your Majesty's permission to add, that although 1 have sometimes
before been instructed by my country, it was never in my ivhole life
in a manner so agreeable to myself.''

" The King listened to every word I said, with dignity it is
true, but with apparent emotion. Whether it was my visible
agitation, for I felt more than I could express, that touched
him, I cannot say ; but he was much affected, and answered
me with more tremor than I had spoken with — and said, —

" ' Sir — The circumstances of this audience are so extraordina-
ry, the language you have now held is so extremely proper, and
the feelings you have discovered so justly adapted to the occasion,
that I must say, that 1 not only receive with pleasure the assurance
of the friendly disposition of the United States, but that I am
glad the choice has fallen upon you to be their minister. 1 ivish
you, Sir, to believe, and that it may be understood in America,
that 1 have done nothing in the late contest but what 1 thought
myself indispensably bound to do, by the duty .which 1 owed to my
people. 1 ivill be frank with you. 1 was the last to conform to
the separation ; but the separation having been made, and having
become inevitable, I have always said as 1 now say, that I would
be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an
independent power. The moment I see such sentiments and lan-
o-nao-e as yours prevail, and a disposition to give this country the
preference, that moment I shall say — Let the circumstances of
language, religion, and blood, have their natural and full

effect.'

" I dare not say that these were the king's precise words :
and it is even possible that I may have, in some particulars,

448 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS.

mistaken his meaning ; for although his pronunciation is as dis-
tinct as I ever heard, he hesitated sometimes between members
of the same period. He was, indeed, much affected, and I
was not less so, and therefore I cannot be certain that I was so
attentive, heard so clearly, and understood so perfectly, as to
be confident of all his words, or sense ; and think that all
which he said to me should, at present, be kept secret in
America, except his Majesty, or his Secretary of State should
judge proper to report it. — This I do say, that the foregoing is
his Majesty's meaning, as I then understood it, and his own
words, as nearly as I can recollect them.

" The king then asked me whether I came last from France;
and upon my answering in the affirmative, he put on an air of
familiarity, and smiling, or rather laughing, said, ' There is an
opinion among some people that you are not the most attach-
ed of all your countrymen to the manners of France.' I was
surprised at this, because I thought it an indiscretion, and a de-
scent from his dignity. I was a little embarrassed, but deter-
mined not to deny the truth on the one hand, nor lead him to
infer from it any attachment to England on the other. — I threw
off as much gravity as I could, and assumed an air of gayety,
and a tone of decision, as far as was decent, and said, ' That
opinion, Sir, is not mistaken. I must avow to your Majesty, I
have no attachment but to my own country.' The king re-
plied as quick as lightning, ' An honest man will never have
any other. ,'

" The king then said a word or two to the Secretary of
State, which being between them, I did not hear ; and then
turned round, and bowed to me, as is customary with all kings
and princes, when they give the signal to retire. I retreated,
stepping backwards, as is the etiquette ; and making my last
reverence at the door of the chamber, I went away. The
master of the ceremonies joined me the moment of my coming
out of the king's closet, and accompanied me through all the
apartments down to my carriage."

CONCLUSION. 449

And thus ended the great question between Great Britain
and the North American Colonies after an eight years' war, to
the entire satisfaction of the people of these United States.

In one point of view it cannot be called a revolution,
seeing our state governments have proceeded with little varia-
tion, as before, through all their legislative, judiciary, and ex-
ecutive forms from the governor to the constable, while the gen-
eral, national, or federative government approaches in several
points to that of a very limited monarchy, the President being
to all intents and purposes a King for the circumscribed period
of four years.

In another view, our separation from Britain was a great
revolution. It changed our sentiments for more correct opin-
ions of British bravery, British humanity, and of the know-
ledge possessed by Kings, privy-counsellors, lords and com-
mons. On the other hand, the struggle led to new and more
correct opinions of France and Frenchmen, and gave us a new,
powerful, and efficient friend in a nation we had heretofore
been taught to believe our natural enemy, dangerous, at once,
to our temporal and spiritual interest. It gave us a better
opinion of ourselves. And while we acquired a confidence
in our own strength, we felt a pride of country from the
success of our arguments and arms, and the character of the
man who enabled his fellow-citizens to display their martial
genius, and transmit their fame to posterity. May we feel
a pride still more noble, an intellectual pride, in the Constitu-
tion of our confederated government, which we believe to be
one of the noblest works of man, and the glory of the human
understanding !

THE END.

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