but the reader now sees sufficiently that it had a solid foundation to rest upon. That JUNIUS moved in the immediate circle of the court, and was intimately and confidentially connected, either directly or indirectly, with all the public offices of government, is, if possible, still clearer than that he was a man of independent property; for the feature that peculiarly characterised him, at the time of his writing, and that cannot even now be contemplated without surprise, was the facility with which he became acquainted with every ministerial manœuvre, whether public or private, from almost the very instant of its conception. At the first moment the partisans of the prime minister were extolling his official integrity and virtue, in not only resisting the terms offered by Mr. Vaughan for the purchase of the reversion of a patent place in Jamaica, but in commencing a prosecution against Vaughan for thus attempting to corrupt him, JUNIUS, in his letter of Nov. 29, 1769, Vol. II. p. 52, exposed this affectation of coyness, as he calls it, by proving that the minister was not only privy to, but a party concerned in, the sale of another patent place, though the former had often been disposed of before in a manner somewhat if not altogether similar. The particulars of this transaction are given in his letter to the duke of Grafton, Dec. 12, 1769, Vol. II. p. 54, and in his private note to Mr. Woodfall of the same date, No. 15. The rapidity with which the affair of general Gansell reached him has been already noticed. In his letter to the duke of Bedford he narrates facts which could scarcely be known but to persons immediately acquainted with the family. And when the printer was threatened with a prosecution in consequence of this letter, he says to him in a private note, " it is clearly my opinion that you have nothing to fear from the duke of Bedford. I reserve some things expressly to awe him in case he should think of bringing you before the House of Lords. I am sure I can threaten him privately with such a storm, as would make him tremble even in his grave'." He was equally acquainted with the domestic concerns of lord Hertford's family'. Of a Mr. Swinney, a cor 'Private Letter, No. 10. 2 The following are two of the paragraphs alluded to in Private Letter, No. 42. "The earl of Hertford is most honourably employed as terrier to find out the clergyman that married the duke of Cumberland, an errand well fitted to the man. He might, however, be much better employed in marrying his daughters at the public expense. Witness the promise of an Irish peerage to Mr. S-t, &c. &c.” Nobody is so vociferous as the earl of Hertford on the subject of the late unprecedented marriage!" respondent of the printer's, he observes in another confidential letter, "That Swinney is a wretched but a dangerous fool: he had the impudence to go to lord G. Sackville, whom he had never spoken to, and to ask him whether or no he was the author of JUNIUS-take care of him'." This anecdote is not a little curious: the fact was true, and occurred but a short period before the letter was written: but how JUNIUS, unless he had been lord Sackville himself, should have been so soon acquainted with it, baffles all conjecture. In reality several persons to whom this transaction has been related, connecting it with other circumstances of a similar tendency, have ventured, but too precipitately, to attribute the letters of JUNIUS to his Lordship. 1 Private Letter, No. 5. 2 In the Miscellaneous Letters, No. vi. Vol. II. p. 491, the reader will meet with the following passage, pretty conclusively showing the little ground there ever has been for any such opinion. "I believe the best thing I can do will be to consult with my lord G. Sackville. His character is known and respected in Ireland as much as it is here; and I know he loves to be stationed in the rear as well as myself." The letter from which the above is an extract, independently of its containing the style and sentiments of JUNIUS, is thus additionally brought home to him by the printer's customary acknowledgment in the P. A. being followed by the subjoined observation: "Our friend and correspondent C. will always find the utmost attention paid to his favours." His secret intelligence respecting public transactions is as extraordinary. The accuracy with which he first dragged to general notice the dismission of sir Jeffery Amherst from his governorship of Virginia has been already glanced at. "You may assure the public," says he, in a Private Letter, Jan. 17, 1771, "that a squadron of four ships of the line is ordered to be got ready with all possible expedition for the East Indies. It is to be commanded by commodore Spry. Without regarding the language of ignorant or interested people, depend upon the assurance I give you, that every man in administration looks upon war as inevitable'.” But it would be endless to detail every instance of early and accurate information upon political subjects with which his public and private letters abound. In many cases he was able to indicate even to the printer of the Public Advertiser himself the real names of those who corresponded with him under fictitious signatures. "Your Veridicus," says he in one letter, Private Letter, No. 28. The knowledge of this preparation was communicated four days before the meeting of parliament: the war however did not take place; but the preparation is now known to have been a fact, the ministry being themselves fearful that the temper of parliament would have forced them into hostilities, from which in truth they very nar rowly escaped. See note to the Private Letter of this No. "is Mr. Whitworth'. I assure you I have not confided in him2." "Your Lycurgus," he observes in another letter ", " is a Mr. Kent, a young man of good parts upon town." Thus widely informed, and applying the information he was possessed of with an unsparing hand, to purposes of general exposure in every instance of political delinquency, it cannot but be supposed that JUNIUS must have excited a host of enemies in every direction, and that his safety, perhaps his existence, depended alone upon his concealment. Of this he was sufficiently sensible. In his last letter to sir W. Draper, who had endeavoured by every means to stimulate him to a disclosure of himself, he observes, "As to me, it is by no means necessary that I should be exposed to the resentment of the worst and the most powerful men in this country, though I may be indifferent about yours. Though you would fight, there are others who would assassinate+" To the same effect is the following passage in a confidential letter to Mr. Woodfall. "I must be more cautious than ever: I am sure I should not survive a discovery three days; or, if I did, they would attaint me by bills." On 4 Vol. II. p. 7. • Richard Whitworth, Esq. M. P. for Stafford. |