may still be wounded in a very tender part-their interest. And I believe lord Hillsborough is too noble to suffer any Lord of the Treasury to prostitute his name and commission to bargains like that I have exposed; but will, if he continues to preside at the Board of Trade, resolutely insist either on such Lord's full justification or dismission.—Hinc illæ lachrymæ. You" defy the whole world to prove a single word in my letter to be true; or that the whole is not a barefaced, positive, and entire lie." The language of the last part of the sentence is such as I can make no use of, and therefore I return it back on you to whom it belongs: The defiance in the first part, I accept, and will disprove what you say. My letter can only be false in one particular; for it contains only, one affirmation, namely, that I heard the story I relate from very good authority. It then concludes with a question to you of who is this Lord of the Treasury that so abhors corruption? Which question since you have answered, I too will gratify you, and in return for yours do hereby direct the printer to give you my name; which, humble as it is, I should not consent to exchange with you in any other manner. Now, Sir, I do again affirm that I heard the story from the best authority: And that it is not my invention your own letter is a proof, for I might have heard it either from Mrs. Burns, or from Mr. Pownal, or Mr. Bradshaw, but I heard it from better authority. I go further. I do still believe the story as I related it to be true; nor has any thing you have said convinced me to the contrary. I do not mean to charge you or any one; but since you have condescended to answer my former question, be kind enough to explain what follows. Mr. Pownal is secretary to the Board of Trade. Mr. Bradshaw is secretary to the Treasury. Why did these two secretaries come together to you? Were they sent by their Principals or not? Who first detected this very scandalous though very common traffic? Has not lord Hillsborough that ho nour? And is not your exaggerated" abhorrence of corrup tion, your astonishment, and indeed HORROR at this shocking scene of villany" vastly heightened by the calm, and therefore unsuspected disapprobation of his Lordship; who does not seem to think with you that every whore should be hanged alive; but only that they should be TURNED OUT of honest company. " till How came you so instantly to entertain hopes of getting the money restored to Mrs. Burns? when you declared, that, that morning, you never in your life heard a single word of either the office itself, nor of any of the parties concerned." Jonathan Wild used to return such answers; because he knew the theft was committed by some of his own gang. You pretend to have given to the public "all the knowledge you have of this detestable fraud." I cannot believe it, because I find nothing in your letter on which to found your hopes of restoring the money to Mrs. Burns; and especially because in three weeks after this letter, i. e. from June 27 to July 18, you have only discovered" that Mrs. Smith appears to be principally concerned in this detestable fraud, the money being, it seems, for her use." Sir, do you not know wнÓSE wife Mrs. Smith is? And are you not acquainted with that gentleman ? Have you caused Mrs. Smith or any one else to be taken into custody? Have you taken "the best advice in law, and are you determined to see if a jury will not do you and the public justice" for this detestable fraud? Or is there yet left one crime which you abhor more than corruption, and for which you reserve all your indignation? But why this anger? He that is innocent can easily prove himself to be so; and should be thankful to those who give him the opportunity by making a story public. Malicious and false slander never acts in this open manner; but seeks the covert, and cautiously conceals itself from the party maligned, in order to prevent a justification. If any person have done your character an injury by a charge of corruption, they are most guilty who so thoroughly believed you capable of that crime, as to pay a large sum of money money on the supposition: (an indignity which I protest I would not have offered to you, though you had negotiated the matter and given the promise yourself,) and yet I do not find you at all angry with them when they tell you their opinion of you without scruple. On the contrary, you pity Mrs. Burns in the kindest manner, which shews plainly that your honour is not like Cæsar's wife. Nay, you seem almost to doubt whether you might beg the favour of Mr. Burns to meet you at your house in Curzon Street;" that is, you humbly solicit Mr. Burns to do you the favour of accepting your assistance in the recovery of his money. Archbishop Laud thought to clear himself to posterity from all aspersions relative to popery, by inserting in his diary his refusal of a cardinal's hat; not perceiving the disgrace indelibly fixed on him by the offer. "Mr. Burns has had the strongest recommendations from per. sons of undoubted veracity, and I believe on all accounts will be found to be perfectly capable and worthy the employment." The letter from Mrs. Burns to you does by no means declare her to be an ideot. Colonel (whom you forbear to mention) is a man of sense, and well acquainted with the world. It is strange they should all three believe you capable of this crime, which " of all others you most hold in abhor "rence." Mr. Pownal, Mr. Bradshaw, and their principals, are supposed to know something of men and things, and there fore I conclude they did not believe you concerned in this bu siness: though I wonder much that, not believing it, both the secretaries should wait on you so seriously about it; but perhaps they may think, that when honour and justice are not the rules of men's actions, there is nothing incredible that may be for their advantage. But, Sir, whatever may be their sentiments of you, I must intreat you to entertain no resentment to me, my opinion of your character would never suffer me to doubt your innocence. If indeed the charge of corruption had: been brought against a low and ignorant debauchee, who, without VOL. I. without the gratifications and enjoyments of a gentleman, had wasted a noble patrimony amongst the lowest prostitutes; whose necessities had driven him to hawk about a reversion on the moderate terms of one thousand for two hundred; whose desperate situation had made him renounce his principles and desert his friends, those principles and those friends to which he stood indebted for his chief support; who for a paltry consideration had stabbed a DEAR OLD FRIEND, and violated the sacred rights of that grateful country that continued to the son the reward of his father's services: if the charge had been brought against such an one, more fit to receive the public charity than to be trusted with the DISPOSAL and MANAGEMENT of the public money, small proof would have been sufficient; and instead of considering it as a crime the most to be abhorred, we might have suffered corruption to pass amongst the virtues of such a man. But yours, Sir, is a very different character, and situation. In the clear and unincumbered possession of the paternal estate with which your ancestors have long been respectable; with a pension of three thousand, and a place of one thousand a year; with the certain prospect of lord Onslow's large fortune, which your prudence will not anticipate; grateful to your country, faithful to your connections, and firm to your principles, it ought to be as difficult to convict you of corruption, as a cardinal of fornication; for which last purpose, by the canon law, no less than seventy-two eye-witnesses are necessary. Thus, Sir, you see how far I am from casting any reflection on your integrity: however if notwithstanding all I have said you are still resolved to try the determination of a jury, take one piece of advice from me: do not think of prosecuting me for an INSINUATION: alter your charge before it comes upon record, to prevent its being done afterwards; for though lord Mansfield did not know the difference between the words when he substituted the one for the other, we all know very well now that it is the TENOR and not the the PURPORT that must convict for a libel, which indeed almost every student in the law knew before. ANOTHER FREEHOLDER OF SURRY. The names of lord Hillsborough and Mr. Pownal having been introduced into the preceding letter, they thought proper to deny any other knowledge of Mr. Onslow's supposed turpitude, than that proceeding from common report, and accordingly inserted the following letters in the Public Advertiser on the day after their respective dates. Long as this note is, we cannot, in justice to Mr. Onslow, here omit them. TO H. S. WOODFALL, Printer of the Public Advertiser. HAVING observed in a newspaper of the 28th of July last, that it is insinuated that I have been the detector of a supposed crime, imputed to the right honourable George Onslow, Esq. I do think it an act of common justice to declare, in this public manner, that I am entirely ignorant of the said supposed crime, and of all circumstances relative to it, except that I have heard the story mentioned in common conversation, and constantly treated as a calumny propagated to injure Mr. Onslow's reputation. Hanover Square, HILLSBOROUGH. IT having been suggested in a letter addressed to the right honourable George Onslow, Esq. published in a newspaper dated the 28th of July last, that I was, together with Mr. Bradshaw, sent to Mr. Onslow, on the subject of a scandalous transaction, in which Mr. Onslow is, in the said letter, stated to be concerned; it is become necessary for me, in justice to that gentleman, to declare, that I never was sent to Mr. Onslow, on that or any other occasion; but having heard this story, I thought it but common justice to communicate it to Mr. Onslow, which I did through the channel of Mr. Bradshaw. J. POWNAL. Whitehall, August 2, 1769. |