you

live in,

Once more: "The very sun-shine is a prelude to your dissolution. When you are ripe, you shall be plucked'." The commencement of his letter to lord Camden shall furnish another instance: "I turn with pleasure, from that barren waste, in which no salutary plant takes root, no verdure quickens, to a character fertile, as I willingly believe, in every great and good qualification"."

In a few instances his metaphors are rather too far-fetched or recondite: "Yet for the benefit of the succeeding age, I could wish that your retreat might be deferred, until your morals shall be happily ripened to that maturity of corruption, at which the worst examples cease to be contagious'." The change which is perpetually taking place in the matter of infection gives it progressively a point of utmost activity:-after which period, by the operation of the same continued change, it becomes progressively less active, till at length it ceases to possess any effect whatever. The parallel is correctly drawn, but it cannot be followed by every one. In the same letter we have another example: "His views and situation required a creature void of all these properties; and he was forced to go through every division, resolution, composition, and refinement of political chemistry, before he happily

'Vol. II. p. 406. 2 Id. p. 441. 3 Post, p. 512.

arrived at the caput mortuum of vitriol in your Grace. Flat and insipid in your retired state, but brought into action, you become vitriol again." This figure is too scientific, and not quite correct: vitriol cannot, properly speaking, be said to be, in any instance, a caput mortuum. He seems, however, to have been unjustly charged with an incongruity of metaphor in his repartee upon the following observation of sir W. Draper," You, indeed, are a tyrant of another sort, and upon your political bed of torture can excruciate any subject, from a first minister down to such a grub or butterfly as myself." To this remark his reply was as follows: "If sir W. Draper's bed be a bed of torture, he has made it for himself. I shall never interrupt his repose'." We need not ramble so far as to vindicate the present use of this last word by referring to its Latin origin: he himself has justly noticed under the signature of Philo-Junius, that those who pretend to espy any absurdity either in the idea or expression, "cannot distinguish between a sarcasm and a contradiction 4."

To pursue this critique further would be to disparage the judgement of the reader. Upon the whole these letters, whether considered as classical and correct compositions, or as addresses of popular and impressive eloquence, 507. Vol. II. p. 10. 3 Id. p. 15. * Id. p. 29,

1

1 Post, P.

2

*

are well entitled to the distinction they have acquired; and quoted as they have been, with admiration, in the senate by such nice judges and accomplished scholars as Mr. Burke and lord Eldon, eulogized by Dr. Johnson, and admitted by the author of the Pursuits of Literature, to the same rank among English classics as Livy or Tacitus among Roman, there can be no doubt that they will live commensurately with the language in which they are composed.

These few desultory and imperfect hints are the whole that the writer of this essay has been able to collect concerning the author of the Letters of JUNIUS. Yet desultory and imperfect as they are, he still hopes that they may not be utterly destitute both of interest and utility. Although they do not undertake positively to ascertain who the author was; they offer a fair test to point out negatively who he was not; and to enable us to reject the pretensions of a host of persons, whose friends have claimed for them so distinguished an honour.

From the observations contained in this essay it should seem to follow unquestionably that the author of the Letters of JUNIUS was an Englishman of highly cultivated education, deeply versed in the language, the laws, the constitution and history of his native country : that he was a man of easy if not of affluent circumstances, of unsullied honour and generosity,

who had it equally in his heart and in his power to contribute to the necessities of other persons, and especially of those who were exposed to troubles of any kind on his own account: that he was in habits of confidential intercourse, if not with different members of the cabinet, with politicians who were most intimately familiar with the court, and entrusted with all its secrets: that he had attained an age which would allow him, without vanity, to boast of an ample knowledge and experience of the world: that during the years 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, and part of 1772, he resided almost constantly in London or its vicinity, devoting a very large portion of his time to political concerns, and publishing his political lucubrations, under dif ferent signatures, in the Public Advertiser; that in his natural temper, he was quick, irritable and impetuous; subject to political prejudices and strong personal animosities; but possessed of a high independent spirit; honestly attached to the principles of the constitution, and fearless and indefatigable in maintaining them; that he was strict in his moral conduct, and in his attention to public decorum; an avowed member of the established church, and, though acquainted with English judicature, not a lawyer by profession.

What other characteristics he may have possessed we know not; but these are sufficient;

and the claimant who cannot produce them conjointly is in vain brought forward as the author of the Letters of JUNIUS.

The persons to whom this honour has at different times, and on different grounds been attributed are the following: Charles Lloyd, a clerk of the Treasury, and afterwards, a deputy teller of the Exchequer; John Roberts, also a clerk in the Treasury at the commencement of his political life, but afterwards private secretary to Mr. Pelham when successively chancellor of the exchequer, member of parliament for Harwich, and commissioner of the board of trade' ; Samuel Dyer, a man of considerable learning, and a friend of Mr. Burke and of Dr. Johnson; William Gerard Hamilton, another friend and patron of Mr. Burke; Edmund Burke himself; Dr. Butler, late bishop of Hereford; the Rev. Philip Rosenhagen; Major-General Charles Lee, well known for his activity during the American war; John Wilkes; Hugh Macauley Boyd; John Dunning, lord Ashburton; Henry Flood; and lord George Sackville.

Of the first three of these reported authors of the Letters of JUNIUS, it will be sufficient to observe, without entering into any other fact whatever, that Lloyd was on his death-bed at

Anonymously accused of having written these letters in the Public Advertiser, March 21, 1772, et passim.