and sacrifice those brave men, by the strange avarice of accepting three hundred and eighty pounds per annum, and giving up eight hundred! If this be bribery, it is not the bribery of these times. As to my flattery, those who know me will judge of it. By the asperity of JUNIUS's stile, I cannot indeed call him a flatterer, unless he be as a cynic or a mastiff; if he wags his tail, he will still growl, and long to bite. The public will now judge of the credit that ought to be given to JUNIUS's writings, from the falsities that he has insinuated with respect to myself.

WILLIAM DRAPER.

If he wags his tail, &c.] The whole of the figure which fills this period, is obscure, low, and without tolerable accuracy of resemblance in the comparison.

LETTER V.

TO SIR WILLIAM DRAPER, KNIGHT OF THE BATH.

THIS Letter is an admirable instance of oratorical and controversial artifice, of that vigilant discrimination which perceives and seizes whatever can overwhelm or confound an opponent, of that closeness and force of logic which give clearness, exactitude, and cogency to every inference, of that ardent vivacity of eloquence, which is the most consistent with gravity and strength, and without which these latter qualities can never exercise their happiest influence... From the tone of public opinion, as well as from the train of the preceding Letter, JUNIUS could perceive, that it might not be prudent for him to renew his invectives against Lord Granby, nor to enlarge farther upon the neglected, undisciplined condition of the army. But he would not, like Sir William Draper, avow his convictions and 'his fears. Whatever personal candour might, in such a case, demand; far different were the suggestions of oratorical and controversial prudence. JUNIUS, therefore, assumes in this Letter, the tone of one who, in the controversy respecting Lord Granby, had certainly triumphed; and dexterously evades the discussion relative to the army, by alledging that Sir William Draper had, in his own person, dishonoured the military character. Sir William Draper had incautiously afforded room for turning the contention upon his own private character and circumstances. JUNIUS, willing to press to the last extremity, to wound and lacerate as it were to death, the man who had so officiously interposed as his adversary, seized all the advantages which Sir Williani gave; and, in this Letter, certainly uses them with a most masterly, but cruel and unsparing hand.

In respect to Lord Percy alone, does JUNIUS here return upon the affairs of the army. He returns to triumph.

Against Sir William Draper, personally, JUNIUS here urges, that he had sold the companions of his victory; that he had, even by his owen confession, infamously bargained away the military rewards which that sale obtained to him; that what he, by misrepresentation, called a losing bargain, was in truth a very gainful one, one negotiated with great address; that the whole army heard of the transaction with indignant scorn; that Sir William Draper could not enjoy

the

the fruits of it, without the frequent repetition of an act of perjury.

Not splendour of imagination, but keen energy of sentiment, forcible cogency of logic, strong propriety of application, business-like plainness secretly combined with all the labour of eloquence, an art conccaling all art, constitute the excellence of this Letter of JUNIUS. There is nothing more masterly, hardly aught equally so, in the invectives of Cicero against Antony, Cataline, or Verres. Compare the style of this Letter with that of Johnson, in his pamphlet on the subject of Falkland's Islands ; that of Gibbon, in his answer to Davies ; or that of James Macpherson, in his famous pamphlet, intituled, "A Short History of the Opposition:" and you shall perceive, how much JUNIUS here excels these great writers, by combining with happier skill than they, the natural tone and manner of real business, with the ornaments of eloquence, and the artifices of rhetoric. JUNIUS is, indeed, a mannerist; and he deals occasionally in eloquence of an epigrammatic cast. But, after these and other concessions shall have been made, how greatly will he still appear to transcend all rival merit! It is for the taste and discrimination of a Chalmers to proclaim, that JUNIUS is a poor, puerile writer !—It is for the judgment of a Campbell to discover, that these Letters must have been written by a youth of two-and-twenty !

SIR,

21. February, 1769.

I SHOULD justly be suspected of acting upon motives of more than common enmity to Lord Granby, if I continued to give you fresh materials or occasion for writing in his defence. Individuals who hate, and the public who despise, have read your letters, Sir William, with infinitely more satisfaction than mine. Unfortunately for him, his reputation,

His reputation, like that unhappy country, &c.] It was in Germany, that the Marquis of Granby's last military atchievements had been performed.

putation, like that unhappy country to which you refer me for his last military atchievements, has suffered more by his friends than his enemies. In mercy to him, let us drop the subject. For my own part, I willingly leave it to the public to determine, whether your vindication of your friend has been as able and judicious, as it was certainly well intended; and you, I think, may be satisfied with the warm acknowledgments he already owes you for making him the principal figure in a piece, in which, but for your amicable assistance, he might

performed. Much as that country suffered, during the war, from the foreign troops which entered it, it suffered still more from the mutual havock and ravages of its own native soldiery. The subject is here dignified by the comparison of the sufferings of the 'marquis's reputation from the defence of Sir William Draper, with the sufferings of Germany by the devastation of troops destined to protect it. There is also a certain quaintness in the comparison, arising from the relation of Lord Granby to the defence and the injuries of the country which is mentioned. Perhaps, too, the author meant, that the whole should wear an air of the burlesque. Such are the figures in which JUNIUS delights to deal: and they rarely fail of admira→ bly answering his purpose.

For making him the principal figure, &c.] This is an instance of the unsparing malignity, equally fierce and subtile, which JUNIUS constantly exercises against his adversaries. JUNIUS had attacked the character of Lord Granby, with as much bitterness in his first as in his third Letter. It is not certain, that he would not have resumed his attack upon the same character, even though Sir-William Draper had never written. But, he wished to find an excuse with the public for his own severity, in the unseasonable and impertinent interposition of his opponent. He seems, also, to have been desirous to make Sir William Draper as odious and contemptible as possible, in the eyes both of the public and of Lord Granby.

have passed without particular notice or distinction.

In justice to your friends, let your future labours be confined to the care of your own reputation. Your declaration, that you are happy in seeing young noblemen come among us, is liable to two objections. With respect to Lord Percy, it means nothing, for he was already in the army. He was aid-de-camp to the King, and had the rank of colonel. A regiment therefore could not make him a more military man, though it made him richer, and probably at the expence of some brave, deserving, friendless officer.-The other concerns yourself. After selling the companions of your victory in one instance, and after selling your profession in the other, by what authority do you presume to call yourself a soldier? The plain evidence of facts is superior to all declarations. Before you were appointed to the 16th regiment, your complaints were a distress to government ;-from that moment you were silent. The conclusion is inevitable. You insinuate to us, that your ill state of health obliged you to quit the service. The retirement necessary to repair a broken constitution would have been`as good a reason for not accepting, as for resigning the command of a regiment. There is certainly an error of the press, or an affected obscurity, in that . paragraph where you speak of your bargain with Colonel Gisborne. Instead of attempting to answer what I do not really understand, permit me to

explain