Woodfall, some instances of which have already been selected, it is impossible to do otherwise than approve both his principles and his conduct. Whether the writer of these letters had any other and less worthy object in view than that he uniformly avowed, namely, a desire to subserve the best political interests of his country, it is impossible to ascertain with precision. It is unquestionably no common occurrence in history, to behold a man thus steadily, and almost incessantly, for five years, volunteering his services in the cause of the people, amidst abuse and slander from every party, exposed to universal resentment, unknown, and not daring to be known, without having any personal object to acquire, any sinister motive of individual aggrandisement or reward. Yet nothing either in his public or private letters affords us any tangible proof that he was thus actuated'. Throughout the whole, from first to last, in the midst of all his warmth, and rancour, his argument and declamation, his appeal to the public, and his notes to his confidential friend, he seems to have been influenced by the stimulus of sound and genuine patriotism alone. With this he commenced his career, and with this he retired from 'The only hints which can be gathered that he had any prospect at any time of engaging in public life, are in Private Letters, No. 17, and No. 65, p. 264: but even these are of questionable meaning. the field of action, retaining, at least a twelvemonth afterwards, the latest period in which we are able to catch a glimpse of him, the same political sentiments he had professed on his first appearance before the world, and still ready to renew his efforts the very moment he could perceive they had a chance of being attended with benefit. Under these circumstances, therefore, however difficult it may be to acquit him altogether of personal considerations, it is still more difficult, and must be altogether unjust, ungenerous, and illogical to suspect his integrity. It has often been said, from the general knowledge he has evinced of English jurisprudence, that he must have studied the law professionally and in one of his Private Letters already quoted, he gives his personal opinion upon the mode in which the information of the King against Woodfall was drawn up, in a manner that may serve to countenance such an opinion. Yet on other occasions he speaks obviously not from his own professional knowledge, but from a consultation with legal practitioners: "The information," says he, " will only be for a misdemeanour, and I am advised that no jury, especially in these times, will find it'." In like* 'Private Letter, No. 18. "He speaks in like manner of legal consultation, and the dif ficulties he laboured under of obtaining legal advice, from the peculiarity of his situation, in Private Letter 70, p. 308. And manner, although he affirms in his elaborate letter to lord Mansfield, "I well knew the practice of the court, and by what legal rules it ought to be directed';" yet he is for ever. contemning the intricacies and littlenesses of special pleading, and in his Preface declares unequivocally, "I am no lawyer by profession, nor do I pretend to be more deeply read than every English gentleman should be in the laws of his country. If therefore the principles I maintain are truly constitutional, I shall not think myself answered,' though I should be convicted of a mistake in terms, or of misapplying the language of the law 2." That he was of some rank and consequence seems generally to have been admitted by his opponents, and must indeed necessarily follow, as has been already casually hinted at, from the facility with which he acquired political information, and a knowledge of ministerial intrigues. In one place he expressly affirms that his "rank and fortune place him above a common bribe';" in another," I should have hoped that even my name might carry some authority with it 4." On one occasion he intimates an intention of composing a regular history of the duke of Grafton's in the same letter, p. 312, he makes the following pointed confession: "though I use the terms of art, do not injure me so much as to suspect I am a lawyer. I had as lief be a Scotchman." I Vol. II. p. 409. Post, p. 350, 351. 2 3 Miscellaneous Letters, No. LIV. Vol. III. p. 202. *Post, p. 411. administration. "These observations," says he, 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';" and on another, that of Lord Townshend's," the history of this ridiculous administration shall not be lost to the public "." And on two occasions, and on two occasions only, he appears to hint at some prospect, though a slender one, of taking a part in the government of the country. They occur in his Private Letters to Woodfall and Wilkes: to the former he says, "if things take the turn I expect, you shall know me by my works'." To the latter, "though "I do not disclaim the idea of some personal views to future honour and advantage, (you would not believe me if I did) yet I can truly affirm, that neither are they little in themselves, nor can they, by any possible conjecture, be collected from my writings 4." Of those who have critically analysed the style of his compositions, some have pretended to prove that he must necessarily have been of Irish descent or Irish education, from the peculiarity of his idioms; while, to shew how little dependence is to be placed upon any such observations, others have equally pretended to prove, from a similar investigation, that he I Post, p. 472. 3 Private Letter, No. 17. 2 Vol. II. p. 76, note. could not have been a native either of Scotland or Ireland, nor have studied in any university of either of those countries. The fact is, that there are a few phraseologies in his letters peculiar to himself; such as occur in the compositions of all original writers of great force and genius, but which are neither indicative of any particular race, nor referable to any provincial dialect. The distinguishing features of his style are ardour, spirit, perspicuity, classical correctness, sententious, epigrammatic compression: his characteristic ornaments keen, indignant invective, audacious interrogation, shrewd, severe, antithetic retort, proud, presumptuous disdain of the powers of his adversary, pointed and appropriate allusions that can never be mistaken, but are often overcharged, and at times perhaps totally unfounded, though derived from popular rumour, similies introduced, not for the purpose of decoration, but of illustration and energy, brilliant, burning, admirably selected, and irresistible in their application'. In his similies, however, he The following character of his style and talents is the production of a pen contemporaneous but hostile to him. It occurs in a letter in the Public Advertiser subscribed Alciphron, and dated August 22, 1771. The writer had well studied him. "The admiration that is so lavishly bestowed upon this writer, affords one of the clearest proofs, perhaps, that can be found, how much more easily men are swayed by the imagi nation, |