man, who, for the interest of his country, ought to have been a great one. I speak of him now without partiality. I never spoke of him with resentment. His mistakes in public conduct did not arise either from want of sentiment, or want of judgment, but in general from the difficulty of saying no to the bad people who surrounded him."

Note 13, p. 36. (5.) To which I reply: every student of history does believe just the things ascribed to Lord Mansfield by Junius, and as the doctor has given us no authority in support of his rash affirmation, I will dismiss him to the tender mercies of those who will search for themselves.

ESTIMATE OF JUNIUS, BY MR. BURKE.*

How comes this JUNIUS to have broke through the cobwebs of the law, and to range uncontrolled, unpunished, through the land? The myrmidons of the court have been long, and are still, pursuing him in vain. They will not spend their time upon me, or you, or you. No; they disdain such vermin, when the mighty boar of the forest that has broken through all their toils, is before them. But what will all their efforts avail? No sooner has he wounded one than he lays another dead at his feet. For my part, when I saw his attack upon the king, I own my blood ran cold. I thought that he had ventured too far, and there was an end of his triumphs. Not that he had not asserted many truths. Yes, sir, there are in that composition many bold truths, by which a wise prince might profit. It was the rancor and venom with which I was struck. In these respects the North Briton is as much inferior to him as in strength, wit, and judgment. But while I expected in this daring flight his final ruin and fall, behold him rising still higher, and coming down souse upon both houses of Parliament. Yes, he did make you his quarry, and

*From a speech delivered in the House of Commons.

You

you still bleed from the wounds of his talons. crouched, and still crouch, beneath his rage. Nor has he dreaded the terrors of your brow, sir;* he has attacked even you—he has—and I believe you have no reason to triumph in the encounter. In short, after carrying away our Royal Eagle in his pounces, and dashing him against a rock, he has laid you prostrate. Kings, Lords, and Commons are but the sport of his fury. Were he a member of this House, what might not be expected from his knowledge, his firmness, and integrity? He would be easily known by his contempt of all danger, by his penetration, by his vigor. Nothing would escape his vigilance and activity. Bad ministers could conceal nothing from his sagacity; nor could promises or threats induce him to conceal any thing from the public.

*Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House, was distinguished for the largeness of his overhanging eyebrows.

SOCIAL POSITION.

WHAT was the position of Junius in society? Was he a man of fortune or of humble means? Was he a peer, or the leader of a party or faction, or was he one of the common people? Let Junius tell. In his reply to Sir William Draper, he says: "I will not contend with you in point of composition-you are a scholar, Sir William, and, if I am truly informed, you write Latin with almost as much purity as English. Suffer me then (for I am a plain, unlettered man) to continue that style of interrogation which suits my capacity."Let. 7. In the following the italics are Junius'. He had been upbraided by Sir William for his assumed signature, and replied: "I should have hoped that even my name might carry some authority with it, if I had not seen how very little weight or consideration a printed paper receives, even from the respectable signa-. ture of Sir William Draper."-Let. 3. Again, he says: "Mine, I confess, are humble labors. I do not presume to instruct the learned, but simply to inform the body of the people, and I prefer that channel of conveyance which is likely to spread farthest among them.”—Let. 22. Again: "Welbore Ellis, what say you? Is this the law of Parliament, or is it not? I am a plain man, sir, and can not follow you through the phlegmatic forms. of an oration. Speak out, Gildrig! Say yes or no."

Let. 47. Again: "I speak to the people as one of the
people."-Let. 58. In Let. 57 he says he is a "stranger"
to the Livery of London. He says, also, in Let. 25, to
Sir William Draper: "I believe, sir, you will never
know me.
A considerable time must certainly elapse
before we are personally acquainted." This language is
not equivocal. They neither of them personally knew
the other. In Let. 18 he says he is not personally
known to Mr. Grenville, a member of the House of
Commons. Nor was he a collegian or lawyer. In Let.
53 he says: "I speak to facts with which all of us are
conversant. I speak to men and to their experience,
and will not descend to answer the little sneering soph-
istries of a collegian." And again: "This may be
logic at Cambridge, or at the treasury, but among men
of sense and honor it is folly or villainy in the ex-
treme." In Let. 7 he says to Sir William Draper:
"An academical education has given you an unlimited
command over the most beautiful figures of speech.
Masks, hatchets, racks, and vipers dance through your
letters in all the mazes of metaphorical confusion." This
is one of Junius' most withering sarcasms. In his Pre-
face he says: "I am no lawyer by profession, nor do I
pretend to be more deeply read than every English gen-
tleman should be in the laws of his country."

"I speak to the plain understanding of the people, and appeal to their honest, liberal, construction "me." And of the Letters he says in the Dedicatic To me, originally, they owe nothing but a heai, sanguine constitution."

Now, from the above facts, and the method of elimination, it may be affirmed, Junius was not prominent be