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you thought it necessary to give some reasons for it to the public. Let them be fairly examined.

1. You say that Messrs. Bromfield and Starling were not examined at Mac Quirk's trial. I will tell your Grace why they were not. They must have been examined upon oath; and it was foreseen, that their evidence would either not benefit, or might be judicial to the prisoner. Otherwise, is it conceivable that his counsel should neglect to call in such material evidence?

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You say that Mr. Foot did not see the deceased until after his death. A surgeon, my Lord, must know very little of his profession, if, upon examining a wound or a contusion, he cannot determine whether it was mortal or not.-While the party is alive, a surgeon will be cautious of pronouncing; whereas,

I will tell your Grace, why they were not, &c.] JUNIUS is not very successful in his attempt to refute the reasons upon which M'Quirk had been pardoned. It is not to be supposed, but that the evidence of the surgeons here named would be the same, whether given upon oath or otherwise. Various causes, beside that only one which JuNIUS is willing to suppose, might have operated to prevent their examination at the trial.

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A surgeon, my Lord, &c.] The reasoning in this paragraph is sorry enough. When a person is ill of a wound, other causes, less visible, and not capable of being fixed, like it, may co-operate with the wound to occasion his death. The physician or surgeon, examines the state of the dying man, while all these causes act together, may perceive that his approaching death is brought on, not by one but all of them. He who afterwards inspects the dead body, ean estimate only those among the causes of his death, of which there are some fixed vestiges still to be seen.

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by the death of the patient, he is enabled to consider both cause and effect in one view, and to, speak with a certainty confirmed by experience.

YET we are to thank your Grace for the establishment of a new tribunal. Your inquisitio post mortem, is unknown to the laws of England, and does honour to your invention. The only material objection to it is, that if Mr. Foot's evidence was insufficient, because he did not examine the wound till after the death of the party, much less can a negative opinion, given by gentlemen who never saw the body of Mr. Clarke, either before or after his decease, authorize you to supersede the verdict of a jury, and the sentence of the law.

Now, my Lord, let me ask you, Has it never occurred to your Grace, while you were withdrawing this desperate wretch from that justice which the laws had awarded, and which the whole people of England demanded against him, that there is another man, who is the favourite of his country, whose pardon would have been accepted with

Inquisitio post mortem, &c.] These words have, in this place, no correct meaning. The absurdity which JUNIUS meant to point out was, that of instituting a sort of second trial of a person who had already been regularly tried and condemned to death. The phrase here quoted, seems to have casually occurred to him. He thought, that he had hit upon a forcible and quaintly allusive expression, hastily used it, and blundered into nonsense in the use.

Now, my Lord, let me ask you, &c.] This paragraph is in the highest degree eloquent. The transition from M`Quirk to Wilkes, is singularly beautiful and happy.

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gratitude, whose pardon would have healed all our divisions? Have you quite forgotten that this man was once your Grace's friend? Or is it to murderers only that you will extend the mercy of the crown?

THESE are questions you will not answer, nor is it necessary. The character of your private life, and the uniform tenour of your public conduct, is an answer to them all.

JUNIUS.

LETTER

LETTER IX.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.

THE fame of JUNIUS was now rising every day higher. The preceding Letter, repeating the popular prejudices, and bestowing on them new reason and dignity, drew much of the public attention. The Duke of Grafton, as well as the Marquis of Granby, found a defender. A person of the name of Weston, a retainer in some subordinate capacity of the service of government, published, without concealing his name, a laboured defence of the pardon to M'Quirk. JuNIUS seems to have at first scorned to descend to a correspondence with Weston himself. He, therefore, chose to give an answer to what that man had advanced, in this second Letter to the Duke of Grafton. The introductory paragraph of this Letter aims at once to confound the Duke, and his advocate Weston, by urging, that the Duke had been luckless, beyond example, in every measure of his ministry; and that, therefore, the usual Marplot endeavours, and the wonted ill fortune of the Duke himself, must undoubtedly have been concerned in producing the pubiication of Weston, which pretending to vindicate his principles and conduct, had however all the effects of a severe satire against both. It derides the pious asseverations of Weston, as contemptibly hypocritical; employs somewhat of an indecent tone of scorn, in regard to religion in general; reminds the Duke of his alliance to the piety of Charles the First, as a matter of ignominy to him; and, with a language in which indignation and eloquence almost begin to lose themselves in bombast, and in the burlesque, asserts that the ministry of the Duke of Grafton had reduced the nation into circumstances of as much distress as was occasioned by the misgovernment of Charles the First, and suggests that the same remedy might yet again be tried which Charles had found so fatal. The age, the infirmities, the prolix periods, and the foolish ignorance of Weston, his dishonouring the ministry, by offering to defend them on principles different from their own, and the miserable inability of the Duke, whose friends could not vindicate without contradicting him, form the burthen of the second paragraph.

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The third, somewhat weakly, tells of the spirit with which, in the case of M'Quirk, the minister had, in defiance of the nation, preferred his fancied interest to his duty.

The concluding paragraph resumes the favourite theme of Mr. Wilkes. His morals were licentious; and JUNIUS seems here to insinuate, that the Duke of Grafton's were not purer than his. Even till lately, the Duke had delighted to cultivate Wilkes's friendship: and JUNIUS urges, that the minister, therefore, abhorred neither the imputed sedition nor the blasphemy of the outlaw. Yet, had the Duke abandoned the cause of his former friend; and either would not, or could not, procure his pardon. A native treachery of spirit, a fixed hostility to those liberties for which Wilkes was a sufferer, a capricious inconstancy, or a servility of compliance with the hatreds of the court, are of course hinted at, as the only motives to which the Duke's violation of his ancient friendship with Wilkes might be im- ̧ puted. With these affirmations and insinuations, JUNIUS here mingles apologies for the vices of Wilkes, dark suspicions of insincerity in the conspicuous piety of the court, hints that Wilkes had been used as the tool of Grafton's ambition, and menaces of danger in the attempt to make him its victim.

It is easy to see, that this Letter, like the former, was written chiefly on account of Wilkes. The Duke of Grafton had, even lutely, invited Mr. Wilkes from France, and encouraged him with the hopes of pardon, preferment, and emolument. But Wilkes's demands were so high, and so fixed was still the resentment of the court against him, that the Duke could not fulfil his promise, nor gratify his own wishes. Wilkes believed, that he had the public on his side, and would not be made a dupe. He chose rather to encounter the Duke's resentment, than to risk the loss of the public favour. That favour made him representative in parliament for the county of Middlesex. Ministry procured him to be again expelled from the House of Commons. Again and again he was re-elected. Government had not, when this Letter was written, taken the last steps against Wilkes in regard to the Middlesex election. JUNIUS might perhaps hope, that his threats and invectives would deter the Duke of Grafton from the contest, and give the victory to the minion of the multitude.

MY

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