MY LORD,

24. April, 1769.

THE system you seemed to have adopted, when Lord Chatham unexpectedly left you at the head of affairs, gave us no promise of that uncom

mon

Lord Chatham unexpectedly left you at the kead of affairs, &c.] Upon the dismission of the Rockingham administration, Lord Temple, partly, as it should seem, for want of penetration and comprehension of mind, partly from honesty, and in part from an ungenerous personal resentment, refused, as he had formerly done, to assist in the formation of any new ministry, unless he might be assured, that the King would, on all occasions, adopt whatever principles of policy, he should chuse to dictate, and would employ those, and only those servants, whom he should please to recommend. Such terms, it would not have become the Sovereign to comply with. Lord Chatham had a mind incapable of dealing so ungenerously with his prince. He formed an administration to succeed the party of Lord Rockingham, in which a combination of men from all parties was attempted, to the exclusion of none but the unswerving adherents of Rockingham and Temple. The Duke of Grafton had been Secretary of State under the Marquis of Rockingham. He abandoned that administration, when he saw that their fall was near. Attaching himself to Lord Chatham, he obtained the appointment of First. Lord of the Treasury, while Chatham reserved for himself the place of Lord Privy Seal in the new 'ministry. Having acted with due respect towards his Sovereign, and with sufficient liberality to those whom he brought into office with himself; Lord Chatham seems to have expected, that he might enjoy, at last, an authority almost supreme, without responsibility, and without toil. He was however disappointed, in regard both to his influence with the Sovereign, and to the respect and attachment of his fellow-ministers. He, first, languished in ministerial exertion; and, then retired, under the pretext of illhealth. The Duke of Grafton was thus left principal minister. It

mon exertion of vigour, which has since illustrated your character, and distinguished your administration. Far from discovering a spirit bold enough to invade the first rights of the people, and the first principles of the constitution, you were scrupulous of exercising even those powers with which the executive branch of the legislature is legally invested. We have not yet forgotten how long Mr. Wilkes, was suffered to appear at large, nor how long he was at liberty to canvass for the city and county, with all the terrors of an outlawry hanging over him. Our gracious Sovereign has not yet forgotten the extraordinary care you took of his dignity, and of the safety of his person, when, at a crisis which courtiers affected to call alarming, you left the metropolis exposed for two nights together to every species of riot and disorder. The security of the royal residence from insult was then sufficiently provided for in Mr. Conway's firmness, and Lord

Weymouth's

was at this time, while he probably doubted what part to take, that there was a temporary relaxation of the energies of government: Mr. Wilkes, though an outlaw, was suffered to offer himself a candidate for the representation, first of the city of London, afterwards of the county of Middlesex; and mobs were left to riot throughout the metropolis, not without threatening the safety even of the palace itself, It is not without great skill, that JUNIUS strives to make this minister contemptible and odious, by representing him as feeble and negligent in the exercise of power where energy was required, but furious and illegally violent where steady moderation was alone wanted.

Mr. Conway's firmness, &c.] Henry Seymour Conway, brother to

the

Weymouth's discretion; while the prime minister of Great Britain, in a rural retirement, and

the Earl of Hertford, served in the army with great reputation, and rose almost to the highest military rank during the reign of George the Second. His talents, both as a speaker in parliament, and in the transaction of other political business, were also eminent. In the contentions which arose after the beginning of the present reign, he was, to the great indignation of his party, dismissed from his place as groom of the stole, and from his military employments, on account of his parliamentary conduct. It was in the year 1764, and because he voted in opposition to government upon the question of General Warrants, that he was thus dismissed. His cousin, Horace Walpole, addressed a well-written paper to the public in his behalf, upon that occasion; and the injury which Conway was supposed to have suffered, and the integrity that wàs believed · to have drawn it upon him, added much new popularity to his character. In the changes of power, he was afterwards secretary of state. The Duke of Grafton, I think it was, refused to act with him; and he was obliged to retire from office. During the American war, he was in opposition. He took afterwards a part in the military service of government, and rose to the rank of field-marshal. He was a man of wit and, of taste in polite literature, as well as a soldier and politician. The comedy of False Appearances, classically translated from the French, and adapted to the English stage, is a signal proof at least of his taste. A long and cordial friendship between him and his cousin, Ilorace Walpole, the late Lord Orford, is finely commemorated in the publication of Walpole's Letters to him, which compose perhaps the best part of the late splendid edition of that nobleman's works. He married the Countess Dowager of Aylesbury, one of the daughters of John Duke of Argyle. The Honourable Mrs. Damer was the only daughter of that marriage, and the only surviving child of General Conway. Her genius for the Fine Arts, and the admirable works of statuary which she has executed, are universally known. General Conway's character and political conduct were remarkable, rather for gentleness, rectitude, elegance, and moderation, than for bold decision and vigorous activity.

in

in the arms of faded beauty, had lost all memory of his Sovereign, his country, and himself. In these instances you might have acted with vigour, for you would have had the sanction of the laws to support you. The friends of government might have defended you without shame; and moderate men, who wish well to the peace and good order of society, might have had a pretence for applauding your conduct. But these, it seems, were not occasions worthy of your Grace's interposition. You reserved the proofs of your intrepid spirit for trials of greater

In the arms of faded beauty, &c.] Unfortunate in a first marriage, the Duke of Grafton now lived in celibacy, and kept a mistress, who had been, in the eyes of JUNIUS, it seems, lovelier when she was younger. This was no heinous political crime. But, it was the avowed principle of the writer of these Letters, never to spare the man whose measures were to be condemned; ever to mingle the abuse of private character with the vehement disapprobation of public conduct. When a minister or adversary of any sort was to be written down, JUNIUS thought that no sort of opprobrium against him ought to be spared, that could contribute at all to this effect. While the morality of this principle is to be condemned, its policy is, however, in the present state of society, to be approved. An opposition that sincerely affects too much candour towards its adversaries, inust ever be feeble and inefficient. But, the use of op. probria against a political opponent may be carried too far. If barsh epithets, or malicious hints, be repeated till they lose their first lively effect on a hearer's or reader's mind; the intended effect is then directly counteracted, and the abuse is not less injudicious than unjust. JÚNIUS, vehement in spirit, and proud of his -talents for obloquy and invective, appears to have occasionally run into this error; and, perhaps, in no instance more strikingly than in too often twitting the Duke of Grafton with Miss Parsons.

hazard

hazard and importance; and now, as if the most disgraceful relaxation of the executive authority had given you a claim of credit to indulge in excesses still more dangerous, you seem determined to compensate amply for your former negligence; and to balance the non-execution of the laws with a breach of the constitution. From one extreme you suddenly start to the other, without leaving, between the weakness and the fury of the passions, one moment's interval for the firmness of the understanding.

THESE observations, general as they are, might easily be extended into a faithful history of your Grace's administration, and perhaps, may be the employment of a future hour. But the business of the present moment will not suffer me to look back to a series of events, which cease to be interesting or important, because they are succeeded by a measure so singularly daring, that it excites all our attention, and engrosses all our resentment.

YOUR patronage of Mr. Luttrell has been crowned with success. With this precedent before you,

Between the weakness and the fury of the passions, one moment's interval for the firmness of the understanding.] Here is an instance of antithesis, and of the accumulation of words for the sake of harmony, which resembles the labour of a rhetorician, much more than the ordinary train of the eloquence of JUNIUS. Nor is this the sole instance. There are several others in the same first paragraph of this Letter. The manner of composition throughout the paragraph, savours too much of the pomp and too apparent technical artifice of Johnson and of Gibbon..

with