many other political pictures, be thrown, not- | field had laid down; and, in laying it dɔvn, as withstanding the reputation of the artist, among the miserable daubings of faction. So far, my Lords, is the accusation without truth, that the directions now given to juries are the same that they have ever been. There is no novelty introduced-no chicanery attempted; nor has there, till very lately, been any complaint of the integrity of the King's Bench." The opinion of enlightened jurists at the present day, as to the merits of the case, is expressed by Lord Campbell in his Lives of the Chief Justices, vol. ii., p. 480. not only followed the example of his immediate predecessors, but he was supported by the unanimous opinion of his brethren who sat by him There was no pretense for representing him as a daring innovator, who, slavishly wishing te please the government, tried to subvert trial by jury, and to extinguish the liberty of the press." Junius, as might be expected, attacked Lord Mansfield soon after in the most vehement terms. If he had confined himself to the legal question and the rights of juries, no one could have con. demned him for using strong language; but he followed his ordinary method of assailing character and motives. He revived the exploded story of Mansfield's having drunk the Pretender's health on his knees. He tortured him by the most cruel insinuations. But he overshot his mark, and fell into the grossest errors, especially in his grand controversy about the right of Lord Mansfield to bail a man named Eyre, in which, as Lord Campbell remarks, "Junius was egregiously in the wrong, clearly showing that he was not a lawyer, his mistakes not being designedly made for disguise, but palpably proceeding from an ignorant man affecting knowledge.” "Lord Mansfield, in the course of these trials, had done nothing to incur moral blame. I think his doctrine-that the jury were only to find the fact of publication and the innuendos— | contrary to law as well as liberty. His grand argument for making the question of 'libel or not' exclusively one of law, that the defendant may demur or move in arrest of judgment, and so refer it to the court, admits of the easy answer, that, although there may be a writing set out in the information as libelous which it could under no circumstances be criminal to publish, yet that an information may set out a paper the publication of which may or may not be crim--Ibid., p. 402. inal, according to the intention of the defendant and the circumstances under which it is pub-ive of good. It roused the public mind to the lished. Therefore, supposing judges to be ever so pure, upright, and intelligent, justice could not be done by leaving to them the criminality or innocence of the paper alleged to be libelous, as a mere abstract question of law, to be decided by reading the record. Nevertheless, there were various authorities for the rule which Lord Mans The trial of Woodfall was ultimately product rights of juries. A similar case came up in 1784, when the Dean of St. Asaph was tried for a libel; and at this time Mr. Erskine made his celebrated argument on the subject, which prepared the way for an act of Parliament, declaring the right of juries to decide on the law as well as the facts in cases of libel. LETTER TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.1 MY LORD,-If I were personally your enemy, I might pity and forgive you. You have every claim to compassion that can arise from misery and distress. The condition you are reduced to would disarm a private enemy of his resentment, and leave no consolation to the most vindictive spirit, but that such an object as you are would disgrace the dignity of revenge. But, in the relation you have borne to this country, you have 1 Dated February 14th, 1770. This Letter must have been commenced within a week after the res ignation of the Duke of Grafton. It is Junius' first shout of triumph over the fall of his adversary. He evidently regarded Lord North's ministry as a mere modification of the Bedford party; and, as he always underrated his talents, he now treats him, at the close of this Letter, with great contempt, expressing (what he undoubtedly felt) a firm conviction that the whole concern must soon fall to pieces, and the Whigs be called into office. This is one of the most finished productions of Ju nius. It has more eloquence than the Letter to the King, and would deserve our unqualified admiration. if it were as just as it is eloquent. In no title to indulgence; and, if I had followed 2 Sacro tremuere timore. Every coward preten-is to be planet-struck. Lould protect him. I would pursue him through the whining piety of a Methodist. We had rea. life, and try the last exertion of my abilities to pre-son to expect that notice would have been taken serve the perishable infamy of his name, and make it immortal. What then, my Lord, is this the event of all the sacrifices you have made to Lord Bute's patronage, and to your own unfortunate ambition? Was it for this you abandoned your earliest friendships-the warmest connections of your youth, and all those honorable engagements, by which you one solicited, and might have acquired, the esteem of your country? Have you secured no recompense for such a waste of honor? Unhappy man! What party will receive the common deserter of all parties? Without a client to flatter, without a friend to console yon, and with only one companion from the honest house of Bloomsbury, you must now retire into a dreadful solitude, [which you have created for yourself]. At the most active period of life, you must quit the busy scene, and conceal yourself from the world, if you would hope to save the wretched remains of a ruined reputation. The vices never fail of their effect. They operate like age-bring on dishonor before its time, and, in the prime of youth, leave the character broken and exhausted. Yet your conduct has been mysterious as well as contemptible. Where is now that firmness, or obstinacy, so long boasted of by your friends, and acknowledged by your enemies? We were taught to expect that you would not leave the ruin of this country to be completed by other hands, but were determined either to gain a decisive victory over the Constitution, or to perish, bravely at least, in the last dike of the prerogative. You knew the danger, and might have beer provided for it. You took sufficient time to prepare for a meeting with your Parliament, to confirm the mercenary fidelity of your dependents, and to suggest to your Sovereign a language suited to his dignity, at least, if not to his benevolence and wisdom. Yet, while the whole kingdom was agitated with anxious ex pectation upon one great point, you meanly evaded the question, and, instead of the explicit firmners and decision of a King, you gave us nothing but the misery of a ruined grazier, and 'The words in brackets were contained in the Letter as it originally appeared in the Public Advertiser, but were struck out by Junius in his revised edition. As they add an important idea, and give the period an easier cadence, it may be doubt. ed whether the author did wisely to omit them. It is unnecessary to remark on the animated flow and condensed energy of this paragraph. An able critic has said, in rather strong terms, "No language, ancient or modern, can afford a specimen of impressive eloquence superior to this." The King's speech, which was drawn up by the Duke of Grafton for the opening of this session, went by the name of the "horned-cattle speech," because it commenced with referring to a prevalent distemDer among the horned cattle of the kingdom, as a matter of great importance, requiring the attention of Parliament. Tois created universal merriment; and Junius could not deny himself the pleasure of of the petitions which the King has received from the English nation; and, although I can conceive some personal motives for not yielding to them, I can find none, in common prudence or decency, for treating them with contempt. Be assured, my Lord, the English people will not tamely submit to this unworthy treatment. They had a right to be heard; and their petitions, if not granted, deserved to be considered. Whatever be the real views and doctrine of a court, the Sovereign should be taught to preserve some forms of attention to his subjects, and, if he will not redress their grievances, not to make them a topic of jest and mockery among the lords and ladies of the bedchamber. Injuries may be atoned for and forgiven; but insults admit of no compensation. They degrade the mind in its own esteem, and force it to recover its level by revenge. This neglect of the petitions was, how ever, a part of your original plan of government, nor will any consequences it has produced account for your deserting your Sovereign in the midst of that distress in which you and your new friends [the Bedfords] had involved him. would think, my Lord, you might have taken this spirited resolution before you had dissolved the last of those early connections which once, even in your own opinion, did honor to your youth-before you had obliged Lord Granby to quit a service he was attached to-before you had discarded one Chancellor and killed another.5 throwing it in the teeth of the Duke, especially as the petitions and remonstrances of London, West minster, Surrey, York, and other parts of the king dom, respecting the most urgent political concerns, were passed over in silence, and thus treated with contempt. One Lord Granby had resigned his office as Commander-in-chief about a month before, affirming that he had been wholly misled under the administratior of the Duke of Grafton as to the affair of Wilkes, and declaring that he considered his vote on that subject as the greatest misfortune of his life. When Lord Camden was discarded and compelled to resign, for saying in Parliament that he had long disapproved the measures of the cabinet, but had been unable to resist them, the King found it diffi cult to induce any one to accept the office of Lord Chancellor. He applied to Mr. Charles Yorke, son of the celebrated Lord Hardwicke, but could not prevail with him, because an acceptance would have been a virtual abandonment of his principles. After trying in other quarters. the King again re quested a private interview with Mr. Yorke, and made such appeals to him (it is believed) as no mon arch ought ever to address to a subject, declaring that, if he would only accept the seals, "an admin. istration might soon be formed which the nation would entirely approve." Mr. Yorke was at length overpowered; he sunk on his knees in token of submission; and the King gave him his hand to kiss, saluting him as Lord Chancellor of England Mr. Yorke instantly repaired to the house of his brother, Lord Hardwicke, to explain the step he had taken, and, to his great surprise, found Lord Rockingham, and the other leaders of Opposition there, concerting with his brother the best meant to make it contemptible. You will say, perhap▾ that the faithful servants in whose hands yo have left him are able to retrieve his honor an to support his government. You have publicly declared, even since your resignation, that you approved of their measures and admired their conduct, particularly that of the Earl of Sandwich. What a pity it is that, with all this appearance, you should think it necessary to sep arate yourself from such amiable companions! You forget, my Lord, that while you are lavish in the praise of men whom you desert, you are publicly opposing your conduct to your opinions, and depriving yourself of the only plausible pre tense you had for leaving your sovereign over whelmed with distress-I call it plausible, for, in truth, there is no reason whatsoever, less than the frowns of your master, that could justify a man of spirit for abandoning his post at a mo evade the question. If you will not speak out, To what an abject condition have you labored to reduce the best of princes, when the unhappy man, who yields at last to such personal instance and solicitation as never can be fairly employed against a subject, feels himself degraded by his compliance, and is unable to survive the disgraceful honors which his gracious Sovereign had compelled him to accept. He was a man of spirit, for he had a quick sense of shame, and death has redeemed his character. I know your Grace too well to appeal to your feelings upon this event; but there is another heart, not yet, I hope, quite callous to the touch of humanity, to which it ought to be a dreadful lesson forever. Now, my Lord, let us consider the situation to which you have conducted, and in which you have thought it advisable to abandon your royal master. Whenever the people have complained, and nothing better could be said in defense of the measures of government, it has been the fashionment so critical and important! It is in vain to to answer us, though not very fairly, with an appeal to the private virtues of your sovereign. "Has he not, to relieve the people, surrendered a considerable part of his revenue? Has he not made the judges independent by fixing them in their places for life ?" My Lord, we acknowledge the gracious principle which gave birth to these concessions, and have nothing to regret but that it has never been adhered to. At the end of seven years, we are loaded with a debt of above five hundred thousand pounds upon the civil list, and we now see the Chancellor of Great Britain tyrannically forced out of his office, not for want of abilities, not for want of integrity, or of attention to his duty, but for delivering his honest opinion in Parliament upon the greatest constitutional question that has arisen since the Revolution. We care not to whose private virtues you appeal; the theory of such a government is falsehood and mockery; the practice is oppression. You have labored, then (though I confess to no purpose), to rob your master of the only plausible answer that ever was given in defense of his government-of the opinion which the people have conceived of his personal honor and integrity. The Duke of Bedford was more moderate than your Grace. He only forced his master to violate a solemn promise made to an individual [Mr. Stuart Mackenzie]. But you, my Lord, have successfully extended your advice to every political, every moral engagement that could bind either the magistrate or the man. The condition of a King is often miserable; but it required your Grace's abilities In your treatment of particular persons, you have preserved the uniformity of your character. Even Mr. Bradshaw declares that no man was ever so ill used as himself. As to the provision you have made for his family, he was entitled to it by the house he lives in. The successor of one chancellor might well pretend to be the rival of another. It is the breach of private friendship which touches Mr. Bradshaw; and, to say the truth, when a man of his rank and abilities had taken so active a part in your affairs, he ought not to have been let down at last with a miserable pension of fifteen hundred pounds a This nobleman was notoriously profligate in his life. Such was the case also, to a great extent, with Gower, Rigby, and all the Bedford men in the Duke of Grafton's ministry. 7 Mr. Bradshaw, a dependent of the Duke of Grafton, received a pension of £1500 a year for his own life and the lives of all his sons, while Sir Edward Hawke, who had saved the state, received what of carrying on their attack upon the government. was actually worth a less sum. Junius, alluding c When he told his story, they all turned upon him Bradshaw's complaints, sportively says that he was with a burst of indignation, and reproached him as certainly entitled to a large pension on account of guilty of a flagrant breach of honor. He returned "the house he lives in," referring to a fact which to his house overwhelmed with grief, and within occasioned considerable speculation, viz.. that Bradtwo days his death was announced. There was a shaw had just taken a very costly residence, pregeneral suspicion of suicide, and it has never yet viously occupied by Lord Chancellor Northington been made certain that he died a natural death. The whole passage is obviously a sueering one, We'll might Junius say, in reference to the King, though Heron takes it seriously, and then repre"There is another heart not yet, I hope, quite cal-sents Junius as inconsistent with himself, because lous to the touch of humanity, to which it ought to be a dreadful lesson forever." be alludes, in a note, to the largeness of Bradshaw' pension as compared with Admiral Hawke's year. Colonel Luttrell, Mr. Onslow, and Mr. | fold recrimination, and to set you at defiance Burgoyne were equally engaged with you, and The injury you have done him affects his morai bave rather more reason to complain than Mr. character. You knew that the offer to purchase Bradshaw. These are men, my Lord, whose the reversion of a place which has hitherto been friendship you should have adhered to on the sold under a decree of the Court of Chancery, same principle on which you deserted Lord however imprudent in his situation, would no Rockingham, Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, and way tend to cover him with that sort of guilt the Duke of Portland. We can easily account which you wished to fix upon him in the eyes for your violating your engagements with men of of the world. You labored then, by every spe honor, but why should you betray your natural cies of false suggestion, and even by publishing connections? Why separate yourself from Lord counterfeit letters, to have it understood that he Sandwich, Lord Gower, and Mr. Rigby, or leave had proposed terms of accommodation to you, the three worthy gentlemen above mentioned to and had offered to abandon his principles, his shift for themselves? With all the fashionable party, and his friends. You consulted your own indulgence of the times, this country does not breast for a character of consummate treachery, abound in characters like theirs; and you may and gave it to the public for that of Mr. Vaughan. find it a difficult matter to recruit the black cat- I think myself obliged to do this justice to an inalogue of your friends. jured man, because I was deceived by the appearances thrown out by your Grace, and have frequently spoken of his conduct with indignation. If he really be, what I think him, honest, though mistaken, he will be happy in recovering his reputation, though at the expense of his understanding. Here, I see, the matter is likely to rest. Your Grace is afraid to carry on the prosecution. Mr. Hine keeps quiet possession of his purchase; and Governor Burgoyne, relieved from the apprehension of refunding the money, sits down, for the remainder of his life, The recollection of the royal patent you sold te Mr. Hine obliges me to say a word in defense of a man [Mr. Vaughan] whom you have taken the most dishonorable means to injure. I do not refer to the sham prosecution which you affected to carry on against him. On that ground, I doubt not he is prepared to meet you with ten This alludes to the patent of an office granted for the benefit of Mr. Burgoyne, who, with the Duke of Grafton's permission. sold out the annual income for a gross sum to a person named Hine. The pros. ecution mentioned in the next sentence is thus spoken of by Woodfall, in his Junius, vol. i., 322: "Mr. Samuel Vaughan was a merchant in the city, of hitherto unblemished character, and strongly attached to the popular cause. The office he attempted to procure had at times been previously disposed of for ■ pecuniary consideration, and had, on one particu lar occasion, been sold by an order of a Court of Chancery, and consisted in the reversion of the clerkship to the Supreme Court in the island of Jamaica. A Mr. Howell was, in fact, at this very time in treaty with the patentee for the purchase of his resignation, which clearly disproved any criminal intention in Mr. Vaughan. He was, however, prosecated, obviously from political motives, but the prosecution was dropped after the affair of Hine's patent was brought before the public." Mr. Heron states, however, that the office itself had never been directly or avowedly sold by the Crown, though the life-interest had been, under a decree of Chance. y." It is not surprising (if this were so) that Mr. Vaughan, not being a professional man, should have failed to discern the difference. His application, therefore, may have been made without any crim inal intention. To prosecute in such a case does seem a very severe measure; and, as the prosecution was dropped from this time, it would seem that the Duke himself considered it a bad business. " It may be added, that Sir Dennis Le Marchant, in his edition of Walpole's Memoirs of George III., says, "Junius's ont of the prosecution [of Vaughan] is fair-making the usual deductions." Walpole censures the prosecution as foolish. As to Hine's patent, he says, "It was proved that he INFAMOUS and CONTENTED. I believe, my Lord, I may now take my leave of you forever. You are no longer that resolute minister who had spirit to support the most violent measures; who compensated for the want of good and great qualities by a brave determination (which some people admired and relied on) to maintain himself without them. The reputa tion of obstinacy and perseverance might have supplied the place of all the absent virtues. You have now added the last negative to your char acter, and meanly confessed that you are desti. tute of the common spirit of a man. Retire then, my Lord, and hide your blushes from the world; for, with such a load of shame, even BLACK may change its color. A mind such as yours, in the solitary hours of domestic enjoyment, may still find topics of consolation. You may find it in the memory of violated friendship, in the afflictions of an accomplished prince, whom you have disgraced and deserted, and in the agitations of a great country, driven by your councils to the brink of destruction. The palm of ministerial firmness is now transferred to Lord North. He tells us so himself with the plenitude of the ore rotundo;9 and I am ready enough to believe that, while he can keep his place, he will not easily be persuaded to resign it. Your Grace was the firm minister of yesterday: Lord North is the firm minister of to-day. To-morrow, perhaps, his Majesty, in his wisdom, may give us a rival for you both. [the Duke] had bestowed on Colonel Burgoyne a place, which the latter was to sell to reimburse himself for the expenses of his election at Preston.”— 9 Note by Junius. This eloquent person has got Vol. iii, 400. This was the statement made by Ju- as far as the discipline of Demosthenes. He constant. nius; and it is not, therefore, wonderful that, after ly speaks with pebbles in his mouth, to improve his the exposure of such a transaction, the Duke thought | articulation."--This refers to a peculiarity of Lord best to say as little as possible about Mr. Vaughan | North, whose "tongue was too large for his mouth." ment was immature, and his strength of purpos« unequal to the control of his passions. He was only thirty-four years old when he was driven from power. During a long life which followed, he retrieved his character. He showed himself, as Sir Dennis Le Marchant states, to be "by no means the insignificant or worthless personage that he appears in the pages of Walpole and Junius. A genuine love of peace, and hatred of oppression, either civil or religious, marked his whole political life; and great as were the errors which Walpole and Junius have justly de say, that from the date of these Memoirs [1771) You are too well acquainted with the temper of your late allies to think it possible that Lord North should be permitted to govern this country. If we may believe common fame, they have shown him their superiority already. His Majesty is indeed too gracious to insult his subjects by choosing his first minister from among the domestics of the Duke of Bedford. That would have been too gross an outrage to the three kingdoms. Their purpose, however, is equally answered by pushing forward this unhappy figure, and forcing it to bear the odium of measures which they in reality direct. With-nounced in his private conduct, it is only just to out immediately appearing to govern, they possess the power, and distribute the emoluments of government as they think proper. They still adhere to the spirit of that calculation which made Mr. Luttrell representative of Middlesex. Far from regretting your retreat, they assure us very gravely that it increases the real strength of the ministry. According to this way of reasoning, they will probably grow stronger, and more flourishing, every hour they exist; for I think there is hardly a day passes in which some one or other of his Majesty's servants does not leave them to improve by the loss of his assistance. But, alas! their countenances speak a different language. When the members drop off, the main body can not be insensible of its approaching dissolution. Even the violence of their proceedings is a signal of despair. Like broken tenants, who have had warning to quit the premises, they curse their landlord, destroy the fixtures, throw every thing into confusion, and care not what mischief they do to the estate. JUNIUS. In leaving Junius, the reader will be gratified to see the following estimates of his character and writings from the two most distinguished literary men of that day, Mr. Burke, a Whig, and Dr. Johnson, a Tory. ESTIMATE OF JUNIUS, BY MR. BURKE.1 How comes this JUNIUS to have broke through the cobwebs of the law, and to range uncontrolled, unpunished through the land? The myr midons 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 you still bleed from the wounds of his talons. You crouche, 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 pros trate. 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 The character of the Duke of Grafton, as given by Horace Walpole in his Memoirs of George III., accords in most respects with the representations of Junius. "His fall from power was universally ascribed to his pusillanimity; but whether betrayed by his fears or his friends, he had certainly been the chief author of his own disgrace. His haughtiness, indolence, reserve, and improvidence, had conjured up the storm; but his obstinacy and fickleness always relaying each other, and always mal à propos, were the radical causes of the numerous absurdities that discolored his conduct and exposed him to deserved reproaches-nor had he a depth of understanding to counterbalance the defects of his temper."-Vol. iv., 69. His love of the turf brought him into habits of intimacy with low and unprincipled men, whose wants he was compelled to supply, and whose characters often reflected dishonor upon his own. His immoralities, though public, appeared less disgraceful at that day, when the standard of sentiment on this subject was extremely low; and in this respect he was so far outdone by Lord Sandwich and others of "the Bloomsbury gang," with whom he was connected, that his vices were thrown comparatively into the shade. It ought to be stated, in justice to the Duke of Grafton, that he entered very early into public life, when his judg-eyebrows. From a speech delivered in the House of Com mons. 2 Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House, wa distinguished for the largeness of his overhanging |