back to a share in the administration. The friends. whom you did not in the last instance desert, were not of a character to add strength or credit to government; and at that time your alliance with the Duke of Grafton was, I presume, hardly foreseen. We must look for other stipulations, to account for that sudden resolution of the closet, by which three of your dependants † (whose characters, I think, cannot be less respected than they are) were advanced to offices, through which you might again controul the minister, and probably engross the whole direction of affairs.

THE possession of absolute power is now once more within your reach. The measures you have taken to obtain and confirm it, are too gross to escape the eyes of a discerning, judicious prince. His palace is besieged; the lines of circumvallation are drawing round him: and, unless he finds a resource in his own activity, or in the attachment of the real friends of his family, the best of princes must submit to the confinement of a state prisoner, until your Grace's death, or some less fortunate

* When Earl Gower was appointed President of the Council, the King, with his usual sincerity, assured him, that he had not had one happy moment since the Duke of Bedford left him.

We must look for other stipulations, &c.] The Duke of Bedford was suspected of being now united in full confidence with Lord Bute. + Lords Gower, Weymouth, and Sandwich.

The possession of absolute power, &c.] This whole paragraph was intended to alarm those who were called the King's friends, against the power of the Duke.

event,

event, shall raise the siege. For the present, you may safely resume that stile of insult and menace, which even a private gentleman cannot submit to hear without being contemptible. Mr. Mackenzie's history is not yet forgotten; and you may find precedents enough of the mode, in which an imperious subject may signify his pleasure to his Sovereign. Where will this gracious monarch look for assistance, when the wretched Grafton could forget his obligations to 'his master, and desert him for a hollow alliance with such a man as the Duke of Bedford!

LET us consider you, then, as arrived at the summit of worldly greatness: let us suppose, that all your plans of avarice and ambition are accomplished, and your most sanguine wishes gratified, in the fear as well as the hatred of the people. Can age itself forget that you are now in the last act of life? Can grey hairs make folly venerable? and is there no period to be reserved for meditation and retirement? For shame! my Lord: let it not be recorded of you, that the latest moments of your life were dedicated to the same unworthy pursuits, the same

Let us consider you, &c.] This, and the three following paragraphs, constitute the most eloquent and impressive parts of the Letter. There is in them much of art; much of passion; much, in truth, of deep discernment into human character, and of sound moral wisdom. All those scenes are enumerated, at which the Duke had met with any popular disgrace. Of such a spirit, as one should think, must have been the verses by which Archilochus made Lycambes hang himself.

busy

busy agitations, in which your youth and manhood were exhausted. Consider, that, although you cannot disgrace your former life, you are violating the character of age, and exposing the impotent imbecility, after you have lost the vigour, of the passions.

YOUR friends will ask, perhaps, 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 returns to Wooburn, 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 name Which ever ways he flies, the Hue and Cry of the country pursues him.

In another kingdom, indeed, the blessings of his administration have been more sensibly felt; his virtues better understood; or, at worst they will not, for him alone, forget their hospitality.-As well might VERRES have returned to Sicily. You have twice escaped, my Lord; beware of a third

You have twice escaped, &c.] The Duke of Bedford had been in Ireland, as Lord Lieutenant. He revisited it, not without much popularity; and was appointed to the principal honorary office in the university of Dublin.

experiment.

experiment. The indignation of a whole people, plundered, insulted, and oppressed as they have been, will not always be disappointed.

It is in vain therefore to shift the scene. You can no more fly from your enemies than from yourself. Persecuted abroad, you look into your own heart for consolation, and find nothing but reproaches and despair. But, my Lord, you may quit the field of business, though not the field of danger; and, though you cannot be safe, you may cease to be ridiculous. I fear you have listened too long to the advice of those pernicious friends, with whose interests you have sordidly united your own, and for whom you have sacrificed every thing that ought to be dear to a man of honour. They are still base enough to encourage the follies of your age, as they once did the vices of your youth. As little acquainted with the rules of decorum, as with the laws of morality, they will not suffer you to profit by experience, nor even to consult the propriety of a bad character. Even now they tell you, that life is no more than a dramatic scene, in which the hero should preserve his consistency to the last; and that, as you lived without virtue, you should die without repentance.

JUNIUS.

LETTER

LETTER XXIV.

TO JUNIUS.

SIR William Draper had endeavoured to forget the ignominy of his unsuccessful epistolary rencounter with JUNIUS; and perhaps hoped that, as it had been made public only in the fugitive pages of a new'spaper, it would soon be forgotten by the world. But the Letters of JUNIUS, among the common materials of newspapers, were as beings of immortal youth among the insects that perish just as they rise into existence. The Letters which had passed between JUNIUS and Sir William Draper, were soon reprinted, without malignity to the latter, or without kindness to the former, but because it was known that they would find sale. When Sir William saw these Letters in a separate publication; he suddenly became aware of all the magnitude of his misfortune; and believed, that his infamy must be perpetuated. To a man whose soul was keenly alive to the sense of reputation, and who had discernment and taste to know the power of eloquence like that of JUNIUS, the thought of his name being thus damned to immortality, was enough to drive the mind to madness. Under the influence of the rage to which the sight of the republished Letters prompted him, Sir William, perhaps reckless of the conscquences, again braved his adversary's terrible invective in the following epistle.-It may be, too, that hearing a general outcry against the atrocious malignity of JUNIUS, on account of his merciless severity against the Duke of Bedford, Sir William Draper might, for this reason, think it the occasion favourable for him to remind the public how very cruelly he had been treated by the wanton satire of the same pen.-Besides, as JUNIUS had foiled many other opponents, since the time of his correspondence with Sir William Draper; and as not one of those persons had come off from the combat with so little of disgrace as Sir William; it was natural enough, that the Knight of the Bath, fond as he was of writing, should think himself not so much dishonoured by defeat, as distinguished by being inferior only to JUNIUS; and should, therefore, resume the pen, with less of fear than of literary vanity.

This Letter complains of the cruelty of the assertion, that Sir William Draper