portion of the nation, whether at home or abroad; and the whiffling Duke of Grafton too much of a weathercock. Lord North was the very man to administer the miserable, half-way measures of George the Third towards the Americans, who laughed at them both. His Lordship was contented to be, at times, the minister of the interior, irresponsible cabinet, without being contemptible; and such was his easy disposition, that, in the most perturbed seasons,-in times that tried men's souls,― his Lordship would sleep and snore in the House of Commons amidst the thunders of the opposition; hence he was compared to a top; the more whipped, the sounder it sleeps. To judge of his character for pliability, we have only to reflect on his coalition with Charles Fox, who had made him for years the object of his keenest invective and the butt of his most pointed ridicule. Nevertheless, Lord North had talents, character, good intentions, fairness of mind, and manners that secured him the good will of every one; hence it happened that he was among the most permanent ministers the crown ever employed; for as nobody envied him, so no one took pains to undermine and remove him. He waddled through the American revolutionary war with Lord George (Sackville) Germaine for Secretary, Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton, for his Generals, in a congeniality with the whole group, that has no parallel in history ; and as he never much excited our resentment, so we never felt towards him a grudge like that towards Lord Hillsborough and the King's sword-bearer, the successful rival of Sir Jeffrey Amherst.*

At that eventful period to which we have alluded, JUNIUS appeared greatly interested in the parliamentary debates. It was at an eve, says Mr. Heron, of an occasion upon which the whigs hoped, at last, to force themselves in a body into administration on their own terms. The Grenvilles, the Marquis of Rockingham, with their respective adherents, were now united. The Letter of JUNIUS to the KING had just excited

* Lord Boutetourt, Governor of Virginia.

universal attention. The bold remonstrance of the City of London increased the ferment. It appears by the private letters of JUNIUS to Wilkes and to Woodfall, that he was roused to the utmost solicitude to effect a change of ministers. He requests the latter to give notice of the contemplated co-operation, or what, on such occasions, used to be called in Boston "the long pull, the strong pull, and the pull altogether;" and that by the extraordinary method of "dispersing hand-bills;" and added to his request," Pray do whatever you think will answer this purpose best, for now is the crisis." At this period, Mr. Taylor remarks, that JUNIUS and Lord CHATHAM still fought under the same banner; and JUNIUS, on hearing that his Lordship intended to support the Westminster remonstrance by going to the Hall, writes to his printer in the flush of hope, "I have no doubt that we shall conquer them at last ;" and, alluding to CHATHAM's speeches in Parliament at the same time, he says, in a private letter to Wilkes, "CHATHAM has gallantly thrown away the scabbard, and never flinched. From that moment I BEGAN TO LIKE HIM." [!] *

While JUNIUS was calling on the people, and on the powers above them through the press, Lord CHATHAM was pouring forth his torrents of eloquence in Parliament on the same subjects, in the strains which we have recorded in the form of parallel passages in the preceding chapter. Mr. Taylor remarks, that, in the commencement of the first speech, viz. on the ninth of January, the sentiments and expressions of JUNIUS, for the space of ten lines, were borrowed from what now appears to have been Lord CHATHAM's speech, and this without any acknowledgment, though the Letter was written nearly two years AFTER the speech was made. The words are not exactly the same, but they are as near as the notes, from which they are supposed to be taken, would render necessary; as near as any man, writing at two distant periods, from the same notes, would be likely to make them; they con

* The female partridge could not have practised a better lure.

vey the same thoughts, in the same order, with the fidelity of a literal translation. "Now, in what way," says Mr. Taylor, "is this to be accounted for? There is no report printed from which the passage could have been quoted, nor would the plagiary have passed without observation if the original had been known. The inference is unavoidable, that he, who wrote the Letters, was likewise the Reporter of the Speech." [!] After what we have said, repeated, and reiterated, we need not add our inference.

The indefatigable compiler of the adduced passages, remarks upon them thus:" Many other passages from the same speech lead to the conclusion, that JUNIUS had it in his memory when he wrote at a subsequent period. But let us proceed to the second debate, and see whether in that also the internal evidence is such as we have met with in the former. In the first place JUNIUS seems to have borrowed from this speech. those remarkable metaphors, the political Bible, and the feather that adorns the royal bird, &c. To have taken them he must have heard the debate, for they are not elsewhere in print. Secondly, in a private Letter to Wilkes, he speaks of cutting away the rotten boroughs, in the figurative language of the speech, and with the same doubts as to the policy of the act. Thirdly, he not only alludes to the proposal of Lord CHATHAM to increase the Knights of shires, but he quotes a passage from the speech before us, in so very nearly the same words, that we know not how to account for it, unless by the supposition, that he was himself the reporter. Under that idea the coincidence explains itself; though, when it is considered that notes only were taken of the speech, it may appear surprising, that the two passages, when fully expressed, should bear so close a resemblance to each other. But it is probable, that the speech, though not published till twenty years after, was composed while the original was fresh in the writer's memory, which has caused it to be so intermingled with the thoughts and expressions of JUNIUS; for, if viewed as the production of another mind, it is equally unaccountable how much the

speech in return owes to the Letters." [Yet this unaccountableness did not open his eyes so wide as to see the truth.] "Lord CHATHAM borrows an illustration from the latter with the same freedom that JUNIUS quotes his Lordship; and there is an equal departure from literal precision in both cases,—a proof that the thoughts at first all emanated from the SAME mind, and were the property of one writer, whatever names he might assume." Then Mr. Taylor selects some particular phrases, used by CHATHAM, JUNIUS, and Sir Philip FRANCIS.

Indeed he fills a chapter of twenty pages with them, and makes the same application to his favorite supposition.

*

Duly reflecting on the labors of this industrious gentleman, our feelings towards him are similar to what we should experience on seeing a man very deeply interested in making a quick journey from Boston to Worcester, taking the road to Lancaster; which brings to mind one of the many excellent sayings of Lord Bacon, viz. "A lame man in the right road will beat a racer in the wrong.' We have yet another feeling towards this writer, lest, after our free use of his parallels, he should say with VIRGIL, in his beautiful epigram,

Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores;

and

Sic vos non vobis nidificatis, aves;

Sic vos non vobis mellificatis, apes.

But so it is in all improvements, where one man stands upon the shoulders of another.

* "JUNIUS Occasionally intersperses, throughout his Letters, maxims, phrases and figures, thrown out by Lord CHATHAM viva voce.”— Taylor.

CHAPTER XI.

NOTICES OF LORD CAMDEN, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE MANSFIELD, LORD HOLLAND, THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, THE DUKE OF GRAFTON, AND LORD AMHERST, IN REFERENCE TO JUNIUS.

OUR task would be incomplete, nor less so our satisfaction, if we omitted to notice certain characters placed in the temple of fame by JUNIUS, standing like so many statues and busts on pedestals, others only in bold relievo, and some in fresco or everlasting plaster, by a first-rate artist. JUNIUS gives unqualified praise to two characters alone,-Lords Camden and Rochford. Of the latter we know only, that he was a very respectable twig of an honorable branch of a venerable trunk of nobility, and was honored with the good opinion of the fastidious JUNIUS. We "no further seek his merits to disclose." We had as lief dig in the mud as hunt out British pedigrees and peerages, in which perplexing process we Americans are liable to ridiculous mistakes, gaining no credit if accurate, and losing much if otherwise. The Briton delights in such researches, while we colonists never troubled ourselves with inquiries of this sort; for, if we did, in some portions of the United States we should be brought up by a convict, and in another by a Puritan with his astringent countenance. The old world generally, the Britons particularly, are in the habit of looking back, not only to the preterperfect, but to the preterpluperfect tense; whereas our views are all in the future, to the glory of those whose native language is the English. Let us first speak of

LORD CAMDEN.

The distinguished figure, which Charles Pratt, Lord CAMDEN, made during William Pitt's career of renown, and even