1 "It was on the 28th of April, in the year 1767, that the late Mr. H. S. Woodfall received amidst other letters from a great number of correspondents, for the use of the Public Advertiser, of which he was a proprietor, the first public address of this celebrated writer. He had not then assumed the name, or rather written under the signature of Junius; nor did he always indeed assume a signature of any kind. When he did so, however, his signatures were diversified, and the chief of them were Mnemon and Atticus, Lucius, Junius, and Brutus. Under the first he sarcastically opposed the ministry upon the subject of the Nullum Tempus bill, which involved the celebrated dispute concerning the transfer on the part of the crown of the Duke of Portland's estate of the forest of Inglewood, and the manor and castle of Carlisle, to Sir James Lowther, son-inlaw of Lord Bute, upon the plea that these lands, which formerly belonged to the crown, had not been duly specified in King William's grant of them to the Portland family; and that hence, although they had been in the Portland family for nearly seventy years, they of right belonged to the crown still. The letters signed Atticus and Brutus relate chiefly to the growing disputes with the American colonies and those subscribed Lucius exclusively to the outrageous dismission of Sir Jeffery Amherst from his post of governor of Virginia. "The name of Mnemon seems to have been nearly taken up at hazard. That of Atticus was unquestionably assumed from the author's own opinion of the purity of his style, an opinion in which the public universally concurred: and the three re maining signatures of Lucius, Ju nius, and Brutus, were obviously deduced from a veneration for the memory of the celebrated Roman patriot, who united these three names in his own. "There were also a variety of other names occasionally assumed by this fertile political writer, to answer particular purposes, or more completely to conceal himself, and carry forward his extensive design. That of Philo-Junius, he bas avowed to the public, in the authorized edition of the Letters of Junius: but besides this they have yet to recognize him under the mask of Poplicola, Domitian, Vindex, and a variety of others. "The most popular of our author's letters, anterior to those published with the signature of Junius in 1769, were those subscribed Atticus and Lucius: to the former of which the few letters signed Brutus seem to have been little more than auxiliary, and are consequently not po lished with an equal degree of attention. These letters, in point of time, preceded those with the sig nature of Junius by a few weeks: they are certainly written with admirable spirit and perspicuity, and are entitled to all the popularity they acquired:-yet they are not perhaps possest of more merit than our author's letters signed Mnemon, They nevertheless deserve a more minute attention from their superior celebrity. The proofs of their having been composed by the writer denominated Junius are incontesti. ble: the manner, the phraseology, the sarcastic, exprobatory style, in dependently of any other evidence, sufficiently identify them. These therefore are now added, together with such others whose genuineness is equally indisputable, to the the acknowledged letters of Junius, to render his productions complete. "It is no objection to their being genuine that they were omitted by Junius in his own edition published by Mr. Woodfall:-there is a material difference between printing a complete edition of the letters of Junius, and a complete edition of the letters of the writer of this name. The first was the main object of Junius himself, and it was not necessary, therefore, that he should have extended it to letters composed by him under any other signature, excepting indeed those of Philo-Junius, which it was expedient for him to avow; the second is the direct design of the edition be fore us;-and it would be inconsistent with it to suppress any of his letters, under what signature soever they may have appeared, that possess sufficient interest to excite the attention of the public. "The first of the letters (signed Atticus) was written in the beginning of August, 1768 It takes a general, and by no means an uncandid, survey of the state of the nation at that period, and particularly in regard to its funded property, the alarming and dangerous depression of which, from the still hostile appearance of France, the prospect of a rupture with the American colonies, the wretchedness of the public finances, and the imbecility of the existing administration, struck the writer so forcibly as to induce him, as he tells us, to transfer his property from the funds to what he conceived the more solid security of landed estate. The conclusion of this letter exhibits so much of the essential style and manner of Junius, that it has every claim to be copied in this place as affording an internal proof of iden tity of pen. "We are arrived at that point when new taxe either produce nothing, or defeat the old ones, and when new duties only operate as a prohibition: yet these are the times when every ignorant boy thinks himself fit to be a minister. Instead of attendance to objects of national importance, our worthy governors are contented to divide their time between private pleasures and ministerial intrigues. Their activity is just equal to the persecu tion of a prisoner in the King's Bench, and to the honourable struggle of providing for their depend ents. If there be a good man in the king's service they dismiss him of course; and when bad news arrives, instead of uniting to consider of a remedy, their time is spent in accusing and reviling one another. Thus the debate concludes in some half misbegotten measure, which is left to execute itself. Away they go: one retires to his country house; another is engaged at an horse race; a third has an appointment with a prostitute; - and as to their country, they leave her, like a cast-off mistress, to perish under the diseases they have given her." "It was just at this period that the very extraordinary step occurred of the dismissal of Sir Jeffery Am, herst from his government of Vir, ginia, for the sole purpose, as it should seem, of creating a post for the Earl of Hillsborough's intimate friend Lord Botetourt, who had completely ruined himself by gambling and extravagance. This post had been expressly given to Sir Jeffery for life, as a reward for his past services in America, and it was punctiliously stipulated that a personal residence should be dispensed "The Duke of Grafton's idea of with. It was an atrocity well worthy of public attack and condemnation; the proper object of a British peerand the keen vigilance of Junius, age differs very materially from which seems first to have traced it mine. His grace, in the true spirit out, hastened to expose it to the of business, looks for nothing but public in all its indecency and out- an opulent fortune; meaning, I prerage, and with the warmth of a sume, the fortune which can purpersonal friendship for the veteran chase, as well as maintain a title. hero. The subject being of a dif- We understand his grace, and know ferent description from that he had who dictated that article. He has engaged in under the signature of declared the terms on which jews, Atticus, he assumed a new name, gamesters, pedlers, and contractors, and for the first time sallied forth (if they have sense enough to take under that of Lucius, subscribed to the hint) may rise without difficulty a letter addressed to the Earl of into British peers There was a time Hillsborough, minister for the Ame- indeed, though not within bis rican department, and published in grace's memory, when titles were the Public Advertiser, August 10, the reward of public virtue, and 1768. A vindication, or rather an when the crown did not think its apology, was entered into, by three revenue ill employed in contribut or four correspondents under diffe- ing to support the honours it had rent signatures, but almost every bestowed. It is true his grace's faone of whom was regarded by Ju- mily derive their wealth and greatnius, and indeed by the public at ness from a different origin, from a large, as the Earl of Hillsborough system which he, it seems, is deterhimself, or some individual writer mined to revive. His confession is under his immediate controul, as- frank, and well becomes the cansuming a mere diversity of mask dour of a young man, at least. I the better to accomplish the purpose dare say, that if either his grace or of a defence. Lucius Junius fol- your lordship had had the command lowed up the contest without spar- of a seven years' war in America, ing, the minister became ashamed you would have taken care that of his conduct, and Sir Jeffery, poverty, however honourable, should within a few weeks after his dis- not have been an objection to your missal and the resignation of two advancement :-you would not have regiments which he commanded, stood in the predicament of Sir was restored to the command of one Jeffery Amherst, who is refused a of them, and appointed to that of title of honour, because he did not another; and in May, 1776, was create a fortune equal to it, at the created a peer of the realm, which expense of the public.' the Duke of Grafton had refused him, under the strange and impolitic assertion that he had not fortune enough to maintain such a dignity with the splendour it required. The sarcastic remark of Lucius upon this observation of his grace, is entitled to attention, as identifying him with Junius in his peculiar severity of reproach. "He is not less severe upon Lord Hillsborough in a succeeding letter; and the editor extracts the following passage for the same purpose he has introduced the preceding. "That you are a civil, polite person is true. Few men understand the little morals better or observe the great ones less than your lordship. You can bow and smile in an honest honest man's face, while you pick his pocket. These are the virtues of a court, in which your education 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 honour. able interest in the antichamber of a favourite.' "Having thus signally triumphed in the affair of Sir Jeffery Amherst, our invisible state-satirist now returned to the subject he had commenced under the signature of Atticus, and pursued it in three additional letters, with the same signature, from the beginning of October till the close of November, in the same year; offering a. few general remarks upon collateral topics in two or three letters signed Brutus. The characteristics of Junius are here often as conspicuous as in any letters he ever wrote: it will be sufficient to confine ourselves to two passages, since two competent witnesses are as good as a thousand. The following is his description of the prime minister of the day. "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 honourably fleshed his maiden sword in the field of opposition, and had gone through all the discipline of the minority with credit. He dined at Wildman's, railed at favorites, looked up to Lord Chatham with astonishment, and was the declared advocate of Mr. . Wilkes. It afterwards pleased his grace to enter into administration with his friend Lord Rockingham, and in a very little time, it pleased his grace to abandon him. He then accepted of the treasury upon terms which Lord Temple had disdained. For a short time his submission to Lord Chatham was unlimited. He could not answer a private letter without Lord Chatham's permission. I presume he was then learning his trade, for he soon set up for himself. Until he declared himself the 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 desponds 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 unwisely) under the preceding administration. The colonies had reason to triumph, and were returning to their good humour. The point was decided, when this young man thought proper to revive it without either plan or necessity; 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.' "The following is his character of the members of the cabinet generally. The school they were bred in taught them how to abandon their friends, without deserting their principles. There is a littleness even in their ambition; for money is their first object. Their professed opinions upon some great points are so different from those of the party, with which they are now united, that the council chamber is become a scene of open hostilities. While the fate of Great Britain is at stake, these worthy counsellors dispute without decency, advise without sincerity, resolve without decision, and leave the measure to be executed by the man who voted against it. This, I conceive, is the last disorder of the state. The consultation meets but to disagree, opposite medicines are prescribed, and the last fixed on is changed by the hand who gives it.' : "The attention paid to these philippics, and the celebrity they had so considerably acquired, stimulated the author to new and additional exertions and having in the beginning of the ensuing year completed another with more than usual elaboration and polish, which he seems to have intended as a kind of introductory address to the nation at large, he sent it forth under the name of Junius, (a name he had hitherto assumed but once,) to the office of the Public Advertiser, in which journal it appeared on Saturday, January 21, 1769. The popularity expected by the author from this performance was more than accomplished; and what in some measure added to his fame, was a reply (for the Public Advertiser was equally open to all parties) from a real character of no small celebrity as a scholar, as well as a man of rank, Sir Wm. Draper; principally because the attack upon his Majesty's ministers had extended itself to Lord Granby, at that time commander in chief, for whom Sir William professed the most cordial esteem and friendship. "Sir Wm. Draper appears to have been a worthy, and, on the whole, an independent man; and Lord Granby was perhaps the most honest and immaculate of his Ma jesty's ministers. Junius did not begin the dispute with the former, and seems, from a regard for his character, to have continued it unwillingly: My answer,' says he to him in his last letter, upon a second assault, and altogether without reason, shall be short; for I write to you with reluctance, and I hope we shall now conclude our correspondence for ever!' At the latter he had only glanced incidentally, (for upon the whole he approved his conduct,) and seems rather to have done so from the company he consorted with, than from any gross misdeeds of his own. Nothing could therefore have been more improvident or impolitic than this attack of Sir Wm. Draper: if volunteered in favour of the ministry, it is impossible for a defence to have been worse planned ;-for by confining the vindication to the individual that was least accused, it tacitly admitted that the charges advanced against all the rest were well founded; while. if volunteered in favour of Lord Granby alone, it might easily have been anticipated by the writer that his visionary opponent would be hereby challenged to bring forward peccadillos which would otherwise never have been heard of, and that he would not fail at the same time, to scrutinize the character of Sir William himself, and to ascribe this act of precipitate zeal to an interested desire of additional promotion in the army. It was too much for Sir William to expect that Junius would be hurried into an intemperate disclosure of his real name by a swaggering offer to measure swords with him; while the following rebuke was but a just retaliation for his challenge. "Had you been originally and without |