ould protect him. I would pursue him through the whining piety of a Methodist. We had rea. life, and try the last exertion of my abilities to pre-son to expect that notice would have been taken serve the perishable infamy of his name, and make it immortal. What then, my Lord, is this the event of all the sacrifices you have made to Lord Bute's patronage, and to your own unfortunate ambition? Was it for this you abandoned your earliest friendships-the warmest connections of your youth, and all those honorable engagements, by which you once solicited, and might have acquired, the esteem of your country? Have you secured no recompense for such a waste of honor? Unhappy man! What party will receive the common deserter of all parties? Without a client to flatter, without a friend to console you, and with only one companion from the honest house of Bloomsbury, you must now retire into a dreadful solitude, [which you have created for your self]. At the most active period of life, you must quit the busy scene, and conceal yourself from the world, if you would hope to save the wretched remains of a ruined reputation. The vices never fail of their effect. They operate like age-bring on dishonor before its time, and, in the prime of youth, leave the character broken and exhausted. Yet your conduct has been mysterious as well as contemptible. Where is now that firmness, or obstinacy, so long boasted of by your friends, and acknowledged by your enemies? We were taught to expect that you would not leave the ruin of this country to be completed by other hands, but were determined either to gain a decisive victory over the Constitution, or to perish, bravely at least, in the last dike of the prerogative. You knew the danger, and might have beer. provided for it. You took sufficient time to prepare for a meeting with your Parliament, to confirm the mercenary fidelity of your dependents, and to suggest to your Sovereign a language suited to his dignity, at least, if not to his benevolence and wisdom. Yet, while the whole kingdom was agitated with anxious expectation upon one great point, you meanly evaded the question, and, instead of the explicit firmness and decision of a King, you gave us nothing but the misery of a ruined grazier, and The words in brackets were contained in the Letter as it originally appeared in the Public Advertiser, but were struck out by Junius in his revised edition. As they add an important idea, and give the period an easier cadence, it may be doubted whether the author did wisely to omit them. It is unnecessary to remark on the animated flow and condensed energy of this paragraph. An able critic has said, in rather strong terms, "No language, ancient or modern, can afford a specimen of impressive eloquence superior to this." * The King's speech, which was drawn up by the Duke of Grafton for the opening of this session, went by the name of the "horned-cattle speech," because it commenced with referring to a prevalent distemper among the horned cattle of the kingdom, as a matter of great importance, requiring the attention of Parliament. This created universal merriment; and Junius could not deny himself the pleasure of of the petitions which the King has received from the English nation; and, although I can conceive some personal motives for not yielding to them, I can find none, in common prudence or decency, for treating them with contempt. Be assured, my Lord, the English people will not tamely submit to this unworthy treatment. They had a right to be heard; and their petitions, if not granted, deserved to be considered. Whatever be the real views and doctrine of a court, the Sovereign should be taught to preserve some forms of attention to his subjects, and, if he will not redress their grievances, not to make them a topic of jest and mockery among the lords and ladies of the bedchamber. Injuries may be atoned for and forgiven; but insults admit of no compensation. They degrade the mind in its own esteem, and force it to recover its level by revenge. This neglect of the petitions was, however, a part of your original plan of government; nor will any consequences it has produced account for your deserting your Sovereign in the midst of that distress in which you and your new friends [the Bedfords] had involved him. One would think, my Lord, you might have taken this spirited resolution before you had dissolved the last of those early connections which once, even in your own opinion, did honor to your youth-before you had obliged Lord Granby to quit a service he was attached to-before you had discarded one Chancellor and killed another.5 throwing it in the teeth of the Duke, especially as the petitions and remonstrances of London, West minster, Surrey, York, and other parts of the kingdom, respecting the most urgent political concerns, were passed over in silence, and thus treated with contempt. Lord Granby had resigned his office as Commander-in-chief about a mouth before, affirming that he had been wholly misled under the administration of the Duke of Grafton as to the affair of Wilkes, and declaring that he considered his vote on that subject as the greatest misfortune of his life. When Lord Camden was discarded and compelled to resign, for saying in Parliament that he had long disapproved the measures of the cabinet, but had been unable to resist them, the King found it diffi cult to induce any one to accept the office of Lord Chancellor. He applied to Mr. Charles Yorke, son of the celebrated Lord Hardwicke, but could not prevail with him, because an acceptance would have been a virtual abandonment of his principles. After trying in other quarters, the King again re quested a private interview with Mr. Yorke, and made such appeals to him (it is believed) as no mon. arch ought ever to address to a subject, declaring that, if he would only accept the seals, "an admin. istration might soon be formed which the nation would entirely approve." Mr. Yorke was at length overpowered; he sunk on his knees in token of submission; and the King gave him his hand to kiss, saluting him as Lord Chancellor of England Mr. Yorke instantly repaired to the house of his brother, Lord Hardwicke, to explain the step he had taken, and, to his great surprise, found Lord Rockingham, and the other leaders of Opposition. there, concerting with his brother the best means conduct, particularly that of the Earl of Sandwich.6 What a pity it is that, with all this ap pearance, you should think it necessary to separate yourself from such amiable companions! You forget, my Lord, that while you are lavish in the praise of men whom you desert, you are publicly opposing your conduct to your opinions, and depriving yourself of the only plausible pre tense you had for leaving your sovereign over whelmed with distress—I call it plausible, for, in truth, there is no reason whatsoever, less than the frowns of your master, that could justify a man of spirit for abandoning his post at a moment so critical and important! It is in vain to evade the question. If you will not speak out, the public have a right to judge from appearances. We are authorized to conclude that you either differed from your colleagues, whose measures you still affect to defend, or that you thought the administration of the King's affairs no longer tenable. You are at liberty to choose between the hypocrite and the coward. Your best friends are in doubt which way they shall incline. Your country unites the characters, and gives you credit for them both. For my own part, I see nothing inconsistent in your conduct. You began with betraying the people-you conclude with To what an abject condition have you labored | to make it contemptible. You will say, perhap to reduce the best of princes, when the unhappy that the faithful servants in whose hands yo man, who yields at last to such personal instance have left him are able to retrieve his honor and and solicitation as never can be fairly employed to support his government. You have publicly against a subject, feels himself degraded by his declared, even since your resignation, that you compliance, and is unable to survive the disapproved of their measures and admired their graceful honors which his gracious Sovereign had compelled him to accept. He was a man of spirit, for he had a quick sense of shame, and death has redeemed his character. I know your Grace too well to appeal to your feelings upon this event; but there is another heart, not yet, I hope, quite callous to the touch of humanity, to which it ought to be a dreadful lesson forever. Now, my Lord, let us consider the situation to which you have conducted, and in which you have thought it advisable to abandon your royal master. Whenever the people have complained, and nothing better could be said in defense of the measures of government, it has been the fashion to answer us, though not very fairly, with an appeal to the private virtues of your sovereign. "Has he not, to relieve the people, surrendered a considerable part of his revenue? Has he not made the judges independent by fixing them in their places for life ?" My Lord, we acknowledge the gracious principle which gave birth to these concessions, and have nothing to regret but that it has never been adhered to. At the end of seven years, we are loaded with a debt of above five hundred thousand pounds upon the civil list, and we now see the Chancellor of Great Britain tyrannically forced out of his office, not for want of abilities, not for want of in-betraying the King. tegrity, or of attention to his duty, but for delivering his honest opinion in Parliament upon the greatest constitutional question that has arisen since the Revolution. We care not to whose private virtues you appeal; the theory of such a government is falsehood and mockery; the practice is oppression. You have labored, then (though I confess to no purpose), to rob your master of the only plausible answer that ever was given in defense of his government-of the opinion which the people have conceived of his personal honor and integrity, The Duke of Bedford was more moderate than your Grace. only forced his master to violate a solemn promse made to an individual [Mr. Stuart Mackenzie]. But you, my Lord, have successfully extended your advice to every political, every moral engagement that could bind either the magistrate or the man. The condition of a King is often miserable; but it required your Grace's abilities In your treatment of particular persons, you have preserved the uniformity of your character. Even Mr. Bradshaw declares that no man was ever so ill used as himself. As to the provision you have made for his family, he was entitled to it by the house he lives in. The successor of one chancellor might well pretend to be the rival of another. It is the breach of private friendship which touches Mr. Bradshaw; and, to say the truth, when a man of his rank and abilities had taken so active a part in your affairs, he ought not to have been let down at last with a He miserable pension of fifteen hundred pounds a of carrying on their attack upon the government. When he told his story, they all turned upon him with a burst of indignation, and reproached him as guilty of a flagrant breach of honor. He returned to his house overwhelmed with grief, and within two days his death was announced. There was a general suspicion of suicide, and it has never yet been made certain that he died a natural death. Well might Junius say, in reference to the King, "There is another heart not yet, I hope, quite cal lous to the touch of humanity, to which it ought to be a dreadful lesson forever." This nobleman was notoriously profligate in his life. Such was the case also, to a great extent, with Gower, Rigby, and all the Bedford men in the Duke of Grafton's ministry. 7 Mr. Bradshaw, a dependent of the Duke of Grafton, received a pension of £1500 a year for his own life and the lives of all his sons, while Sir Edward Hawke, who had saved the state, received what was actually worth a less sum. Junius, alluding tc Bradshaw's complaints, sportively says that he was certainly entitled to a large pension on account of "the house he lives in," referring to a fact which occasioned considerable speculation, viz., that Bradshaw had just taken a very costly residence, previously occupied by Lord Chancellor Northington. The whole passage is obviously a sneering one, though Heron takes it seriously, and then repre sents Junius as inconsistent with himself, because he alludes, in a note, to the largeness of Bradshaw's pension as compared with Admiral Hawke's year. Colonel Luttrell, Mr. Onslow, and Mr. Burgoyne were equally engaged with you, and have rather more reason to complain than Mr. Bradshaw. These are men, my Lord, whose friendship you should have adhered to on the same principle on which you deserted Lord Rockingham, Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, and the Duke of Portland. We can easily account for your violating your engagements with men of honor, but why should you betray your natural connections? Why separate yourself from Lord Sandwich, Lord Gower, and Mr. Rigby, or leave the three worthy gentlemen above mentioned to shift for themselves? With all the fashionable indulgence of the times, this country does not abound in characters like theirs; and you may find it a difficult matter to recruit the black catalogue of your friends. The recollection of the royal patent you sold to Mr. Hine obliges me to say a word in defense of a man [Mr. Vaughan] whom you have taken the most dishonorable means to injure. I do not refer to the sham prosecution which you affected to carry on against him. On that ground, I doubt not he is prepared to meet you with ten | fold recrimination, and to set you at defiance. The injury you have done him affects his moral character. You knew that the offer to purchase the reversion of a place which has hitherto been sold under a decree of the Court of Chancery, however imprudent in his situation, would no way tend to cover him with that sort of guilt which you wished to fix upon him in the eyes of the world. You labored then, by every species of false suggestion, and even by publishing counterfeit letters, to have it understood that he had proposed terms of accommodation to you, and had offered to abandon his principles, his party, and his friends. You consulted your own breast for a character of consummate treachery, and gave it to the public for that of Mr. Vaughan. I think myself obliged to do this justice to an injured man, because I was deceived by the appearances thrown out by your Grace, and have frequently spoken of his conduct with indignation. If he really be, what I think him, honest, though mistaken, he will be happy in recovering his reputation, though at the expense of his understanding. Here, I see, the matter is likely to rest. Your Grace is afraid to carry on the of his purchase; and Governor Burgoyne, reprosecution. Mr. Hine keeps quiet possession lieved from the apprehension of refunding the money, sits down, for the remainder of his life, INFAMOUS and CONTENTED. s This alludes to the patent of an office granted for the benefit of Mr. Burgoyne, who, with the Duke of Grafton's permission. sold out the annual income for a gross sum to a person named Hine. The prosecution mentioned in the next sentence is thus spoken of by Woodfall, in his Junius, vol. i., 322: "Mr. I believe, my Lord, I may now take my leave Samuel Vaughan was a merchant in the city, of hith- of you forever. You are no longer that resolute erto unblemished character, and strongly attached minister who had spirit to support the most vioto the popular cause. The office he attempted to lent measures; who compensated for the want procure had at times been previously disposed of for of good and great qualities by a brave determina pecuniary consideration, and had, on one particu lar occasion, been sold by an order of a Court of ation (which some people admired and relied on) Chancery, and consisted in the reversion of the to maintain himself without them. The reputa clerkship to the Supreme Court in the island of Ja- tion of obstinacy and perseverance might have maica. A Mr. Howell was, in fact, at this very time supplied the place of all the absent virtues. You in treaty with the patentee for the purchase of his have now added the last negative to your char resignation, which clearly disproved any criminal in- acter, and meanly confessed that you are desti. tention in Mr. Vaughan. He was, however, pros-tute of the common spirit of a man. Retire ecuted, obviously from political motives, but the prosecution was dropped after the affair of Hine's patent was brought before the public." Mr. Heron states, however, that "the office itself had never been directly or avowedly sold by the Crown, though the life-interest had been, under a decree of Chancery." It is not surprising (if this were so) that Mr. Vaughan, not being a professional man, should have failed to discern the difference. His application, therefore, may have been made without any crim inal intention. To prosecute in such a case does seem a very severe measure; and, as the prosecution was dropped from this time, it would seem that the Duke himself considered it a bad business. then, my Lord, and hide your blushes from the world; for, with such a load of shame, even BLACK may change its color. A mind such as yours, in the solitary hours of domestic enjoyment, may still find topics of consolation. You may find it in the memory of violated friendship, in the afflictions of an accomplished prince, whom you have disgraced and deserted, and inthe agitations of a great country, driven by your councils to the brink of destruction. The palm of ministerial firmness is now transferred to Lord North. He tells us so himself. with the plenitude of the ore rotundo; and I am ready enough to believe that, while he can keep his place, he will not easily be persuaded to resign it. Your Grace was the firm minister of yesterday: Lord North is the firm minister of to-day. To-morrow, perhaps, his Majesty, in his wisdom, may give us a rival for you both. It may be added, that Sir Dennis Le Marchant, in his edition of Walpole's Memoirs of George III., says, "Junius's account of the prosecution [of Vaughan] is fair-making the usual deductions." Walpole censures the prosecution as foolish. As to Hine's patent, he says, "It was proved that he ¡the Duke] had bestowed on Colonel Burgoyne a place, which the latter was to sell to reimburse himself for the expenses of his election at Preston."- Note by Junius. "This eloquent person has got Vol. iii., 400. This was the statement made by Ju- as far as the discipline of Demosthenes. He constantnius; and it is not, therefore, wonderful that, after ly speaks with pebbles in his mouth, to improve his the exposure of such a transaction, the Duke thought articulation."--This refers to a peculiarity of Lor best to say as little as possible about Mr. Vaughan | North, whose "tongue was too large for his mouth." ❘ ment was immature, and his strength of purpose unequal to the control of his passions. He was only thirty-four years old when he was driven from power. During a long life which followed, he retrieved his character. He showed himself, as Sir Dennis Le Marchant states, to be "by no means the insignificant or worthless personage that he appears in the pages of Walpole and Junius. A genuine love of peace, and hatred of oppression, either civil or religious, marked his whole political life; and great as were the errors which Walpole and Junius have justly de say, that from the date of these Memoirs [1771] to his death, which comprises a period of near forty years, there were few individuals more highly and more generally esteemed.”—Note to Walpole's Memoirs of George III., vol. iv., p. 73. You are too well acquainted with the temper of your late allies to think it possible that Lord North should be permitted to govern this country. If we may believe common fame, they have shown him their superiority already. His Majesty is indeed too gracious to insult his subjects by choosing his first minister from among the domestics of the Duke of Bedford. That would have been too gross an outrage to the three kingdoms. Their purpose, however, is equally answered by pushing forward this unhappy figure, and forcing it to bear the odium of measures which they in reality direct. With-nounced in his private conduct, it is only just to out immediately appearing to govern, they possess the power, and distribute the emoluments of government as they think proper. They still adhere to the spirit of that calculation which made Mr. Luttrell representative of Middlesex. Far from regretting your retreat, they assure us very gravely that it increases the real strength of the ministry. According to this way of reasoning, they will probably grow stronger, and more flourishing, every hour they exist; for I think there is hardly a day passes in which some one or other of his Majesty's servants does not leave them to improve by the loss of his assistance. But, alas! their countenances speak a different language. When the members drop off, the main body can not be insensible of its approaching dissolution. Even the violence of their proceedings is a signal of despair. Like broken tenants, who have had warning to quit the premises, they curse their landlord, destroy the fixtures, throw every thing into confusion, and care not what mischief they do to the estate. JUNIUS. In leaving Junius, the reader will be gratified to see the following estimates of his character and writings from the two most distinguished literary men of that day, Mr. Burke, a Whig, and Dr. Johnson, a Tory. ESTIMATE OF JUNIUS, BY MR. Burke.1 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. No; they disdain such vermin, when the mighty boar of the forest, that has broken through all their toils, is before them. But what will all their efforts avail? No sooner has he wounded one than he lays another dead at his feet. For my part, The character of the Duke of Grafton, as given when I saw his attack upon the King, I own my by Horace Walpole in his Memoirs of George blood ran cold. I thought that he had ventured III., accords in most respects with the represent- too far, and there was an end of his triumphs. ations of Junius. "His fall from power was Not that he had not asserted many truths. Yes, universally ascribed to his pusillanimity; but sir, there are in that composition many bold whether betrayed by his fears or his friends, he truths, by which a wise prince might profit. It had certainly been the chief author of his own was the rancor and venom with which I was disgrace. His haughtiness, indolence, reserve, struck. In these respects the North Briton is and improvidence, had conjured up the storm; as much inferior to him, as in strength, wit, and but his obstinacy and fickleness always relaying judgment. But while I expected in this daring each other, and always mal à propos, were the flight his final ruin and fall, behold him rising radical causes of the numerous absurdities that still higher, and coming down souse upon both discolored his conduct and exposed him to de- houses of Parliament. Yes, he did make you his served reproaches-nor had he a depth of un- quarry, and you still bleed from the wounds of derstanding to counterbalance the defects of his his talons. You crouchel, and still crouch, betemper."-Vol. iv., 69. His love of the turf neath his rage. Nor has he dreaded the terrors brought him into habits of intimacy with low of your brow, sir; he has attacked even youand unprincipled men, whose wants he was com- he has and I believe you have no reason to pelled to supply, and whose characters often re- triumph in the encounter. In short, after carryflected dishonor upon his own. His immorali-ing away our Royal Eagle in his pounces, and ties, though public, appeared less disgraceful at that day, when the standard of sentiment on this subject was extremely low; and in this respect he was so far outdone by Lord Sandwich and others of "the Bloomsbury gang," with whom he was connected, that his vices were thrown comparatively into the shade. It ought to be stated, in justice to the Duke of Grafton, that he entered very early into public life, when his judg dashing him against a rock, 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 From a speech delivered in the House of Com mons. Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House, was distinguished for the largeness of bis overhanging eyebrows. knowledge, his firinness, and integrity? He | he has the art of persuading when he seconded would be easily known by his contempt of all desire; as a reasoner, he has convinced those danger, by his penetration, by his vigor. Noth- who had no doubt before; as moralist, he has ing would escape his vigilance and activity. Bad taught that virtue may disgrace; and as a paministers could conceal nothing from his sagaci-triot, he has gratified the mean by insults on the ty; nor could promises nor threats induce him to conceal any thing from the public. It is not by his liveliness of imagery, his pun he detains the cits of London and the boors of high. Finding sedition ascendant, he has been able to advance it; finding the nation combustible, he has been able to inflame it. Let us abESTIMATE OF JUNIUS, BY DR. JOHNSON.3 stract from his wit the vivacity of insolence, and This thirst of blood, however the visible pro- withdraw from his efficacy the sympathetic favor moters of sedition may think it convenient to of plebeian malignity; I do no say that we shall shrink from the accusation, is loudly avowed by leave him nothing; the case that I defend JUNIUS, the writer to whom his party owes much scorns the help of falsehoo, but if we leave of its pride, and some of its popularity. Of Ju-him only his merit, what will be his praise? NIUS it can not be said, as of Ulysses, that he scatters ambiguous expressions among the vul-gency of periods, or his fertility of allusion, that gar; for he cries havoc without reserve, and endeavors to let slip the dogs of foreign and of civil war, ignorant whither they are going, and careless what may be their prey. JUNIUS has sometimes made his satire felt; but let not injudicious admiration mistake the venom of the shaft for the vigor of the blow. He has sometimes sported with lucky malice; but to him that knows his company, it is not hard to be sar-proportioned to the bawl of Bellas or barbarity castic in a mask. While he walks like Jack the Giant Killer in a coat of darkness, he may do much mischief with little strength. Novelty captivates the superficial and thoughtless; vehemence delights the discontented and turbulent. He that contradicts acknowledged truth will always have an audience; he that vilifies established authority will always find abettors. Middlesex. Of style and sentiment they take no cognizance. They admire him for virtues like their own, for contempt of order and violence of outrage, for rage of defamation and audacity of falsehood. The supporters of the Bill of Rights feel no niceties of composition nor dexterities of sophistry; their faculties are better of Beckford; but they are told that JUNIUS is on their side, and they are therefore sure that JuNIUS is infallible. Those who know not whither he would lead them, resolve to follow him; and those who can not find his meaning, hope he means rebellion. JUNIUS is an unusual phenomena, on which some have gazed with wonder, and some with JUNIUS burst into notice with a blaze of im- terror; but wonder and terror are transitory pas. pudence which has rarely glared upon the world sions. He will soon be more closely viewed or before, and drew the rabble after him as a monmore attentively examined, and what folly has ster makes a show. When he had once pro- taken for a comet, that from its flaming hair vided for his safety by impenetrable secrecy, he shook pestilence and war, inquiry will find to be had nothing to combat but truth and justice, en-only a meteor formed by the vapors of putrefyemies whom he knows to be feeble in the dark.ing democracy, and kindled into flame by the Being then at liberty to indulge himself in all effervescence of interest struggling with convic the immunities of invisibility-out of the reach tion, which, after having plunged its followers in of danger, he has been bold; out of the reach of a bog, will leave us inquiring why we regard shame, he has been confident. As a rhetorician, ed it. Yet, though I can not think the style of Junius secure from criticism—though his expres. sions are often trite, and his periods feeble-should never have stationed him where he has placed himself, had I not rated him by his mor als rather than his faculties. What," say Pope, "must be the priest, where the monkey is a god?" What must be the drudge of a party, of which the heads are Wilkes and Crosby, Sawbridge and Townsend? 66 |