certain services to be performed for the Favorite's security, or to gratify his resentments, which your predecessors in office had the wisdom or the virtue not to undertake. ment this refractory spirit was discovered, their disgrace was determined. Lord Chatham, Mr. Grenville, and Lord Rockingham have successmuch agitated question of favoritism, he will be aid-ively had the honor to be dismissed, for prefer

rights of the people. But these are rights, my
Lord, which you can no more annihilate than
you can the soil to which they are annexed.
The question no longer turns upon points of na-
tional honor and security abroad, or on the de-
grees of expediency and propriety of measures
at home. It was not inconsistent that you should
abandon the cause of liberty in another country
[Corsica], which you had persecuted in your own;
and in the common arts of domestic corruption,
we miss no part of Sir Robert Walpole's system
except his abilities.
In this humble, imitative
line you might long have proceeded, safe and con-
temptible. You might probably never have risen
to the dignity of being hated, and you might even
have been despised with moderation. But, it
seems, you meant to be distinguished; and to a
mind like yours there was no other road to fame
but by the destruction of a noble fabric, which
you thought had been too long the admiration
of mankind. The use you have made of the
military force, introduced an alarming change in
the mode of executing the laws. The arbitrary
appointment of Mr. Luttrell invades the founda-
tion of the laws themselves, as it manifestly
transfers the right of legislation from those whom
the people have chosen to those whom they have
rejected. With a succession of such appoint-
ments, we may soon see a House of Commons
collected, in the choice of which the other towns
and counties of England will have as little share
as the devoted county of Middlesex.

House of Commons must declare themselves not only independent of their constituents, but the determined enemies of the Constitution. Consider, my Lord, whether this be an extremity to which their fears will permit them to advance; or, if their protection should fail you, how far you are authorized to rely upon the sincerity of those smiles, which a pious court lavishes without reluctance upon a libertine by profession. It is not, indeed, the least of the thousand contradictions which attend you, that a man, marked to the world by the grossest violation of all ceremony and decorum, should be the first servant of a court, in which prayers are morality, and kneeling is religion.3 Trust not too far to appearances, by which your predecessors have been deceived, though they have not been injured. Even the best of princes may at last discover that this is a contention in which every thing may be lost, but nothing can be gained; and, as you became minister by accident, were adopted without choice, and continued without favor, be assured that, whenever an occasion presses, you will be discarded without even the forms of regret. You will then have reason to be thankful if you are permitted to retire to that seat of learning, which, in contemplation of the system of your life, the comparative purity of your manners with those of their high steward [Lord Sandwich], and a thousand other recommending circumstances, has chosen you to encourage the growing virtue of their youth, and to preside over their education.* Whenever the spirit of distributing prebends and bishoprics shall have departed from you, you will find that learned seminary perfectly recovered from the delirium of an installation, and, what in truth it ought to be, once more a peaceful scene of slumber and meditation. The venerable tutors of the university will no longer distress your modesty by proposing you for a pattern to their pupils. The learned dullness of declamation will be silent; and even the venal muse, though happiest in fiction, will forget your virtues. Yet, for the ben

Yet I trust your Grace will find that the people of this country are neither to be intimidated by violent measures, nor deceived by refinement. When they see Mr. Luttrell seated in the House of Commons by mere dint of power, and in direct opposition to the choice of a whole county, they will not listen to those subtleties by which every arbitrary exertion of authority is explained into the law and privilege of Parliament. It requires no persuasion of argument, but simply the evidence of the senses, to convince them, that to transfer the right of election from the collective to the representative body of the people, contra-efit of the succeeding age, I could wish that your dicts all those ideas of a House of Commons retreat might be deferred until your morals shall which they have received from their forefathers, happily be ripened to that maturity of corruption and which they had already, though vainly, per- at which, philosophers tell us, the worst examhaps, delivered to their children. The principles cease to be contagious. ples on which this violent measure has been defended have added scorn to injury, and forced us to feel that we are not only oppressed, but in

sulted.

With what force, my Lord, with what protection, are you prepared to meet the united detestation of the people of England? The city of London has given a generous example to the kingdom, in what manner a King of this country ought to be addressed; and I fancy, my Lord, it is not yet in your courage to stand between your sovereign and the addresses of his subjects. The injuries you have done this country are such as demand not only redress, but vengeance. In vain shall you look for protection to that venal vote which you have already paid for another must be purchased; and, to save a minister, the

:

JUNIUS.

3 This attack on the moral and religious character

of the King was wholly unmerited. A sovereign can not always find ministers able to carry on the government, whose private character he approves. George III. had no grimace in his religion; he was sincere and conscientious; and he at last wrought a surprising change in the outward morals of the higher classes, by the purity of his own household. All England has borne testimony to the wide-spread and powerful influence of his reign in this respect.

The Duke of Grafton had recently been installed Chancellor of the University of Cambridge with great pomp. The poet Gray, who owed his professorship to the unsolicited patronage of the Duke, had composed his Ode for Music, to be performed on that occasion, commencing,

Hence! avaunt! 'tis holy ground!
Comus and his nightly crew, &c.

LETTER

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.'

of your established character, and perhaps an
insult to your understanding. You have nice
feelings, my Lord, if we may judge from your
resentments. Cautious, therefore, of giving of-
fense, where you have so little deserved it, I
shall leave the illustration of your virtues to
Your friends have a privilege to
other hands.
play upon the easiness of your temper, or pos-
sibly they are better acquainted with your good
qualities than I am. You have done good by
stealth. The rest is upon record. You have
still left ample room for speculation, when pan-
egyric is exhausted.

MY LORD,-You are so little accustomed to receive any marks of respect or esteem from the public, that if, in the following lines, a compliment or expression of applause should escape me, I fear you would consider it as a mockery Dated September 19th, 1769. The Bedford family was at this time the richest in England, and, through its borough interest and wide-spread alliances, stood foremost in political influence. The present Duke was now sixty years old, and had spent half his life in the conflicts of party. He first held office under Lord Carteret, then under Mr. Pelham, and was made Viceroy of Ireland by Lord Chatham in his first administration. Thus far he had actYou are indeed a very considerable man. ed as a Whig. But when Lord Bute drove out Lord Chatham in 1761, he took the office of Privy Seal, highest rank, a splendid fortune, and a name, glomade vacant by the resignation of Chatham's broth-rious till it was yours, were sufficient to have super-in-law. Lord Temple, and was now considered as uniting his interests to those of the Favorite. When Lord Bute resigned in 1763, the influence of the Duke became ascendant in the cabinet, and the administration, though ostensibly that of Mr. Grenville, has often been spoken of as the Duke of Bedford's. It was extremely unpopular, from the gen

eral belief that Lord Bute still ruled as Favorite; and in 1765 it gave way to the administration of Lord Rockingham, which threw the Duke of Bedford wholly into the back-ground. The Duke of Grafton, when he became minister in 1767, through the illness of Lord Chatham and the death of Charles Townsend, found it necessary to call in new strength, and opened negotiations, as already mentioned, with Lord Rockingham on the one hand and the Duke of Bedford on the other. The Rockingham Whigs had the strongest hopes of prevailing in these new arrangements, and of being made virtual masters of the government. But the influence of the Duke of Bedford prevailed. Three of his dependents, Lords Weymouth, Gower, and Sandwich, were received into the ministry; and the Duke of Bedford drew upon himself the bitterest resentment of the Rockingham Whigs for thus depriving them of power, and becoming, as they conceived, the savior of Lord Bute and the Tories, and thus re-establishing the system of secret influence in the closet. These events, as stated above, were the immediate cause which

led the writer of these Letters to come out under a

The

ported you with meaner abilities than I think you
possess. From the first, you derived a constitu-
tional claim to respect; from the second, a natu-
ral extensive authority; the last created a partial
expectation of hereditary virtues.
The use you
have made of these uncommon advantages might
have been more honorable to yourself, but could
not be more instructive to mankind.
We may
trace it in the veneration of your country, in the
choice of your friends, and in the accomplish-
ment of every sanguine hope which the public
might have conceived from the illustrious name
of Russell.

The eminence of your station gave you a commanding prospect of your duty. The road, which led to honor, was open to your view. You could not lose it by mistake, and you had no temptation to depart from it by design. Compare the natural dignity and importance of the richest peer of England; the noble independence which he might have maintained in Parliament; and the real interest and respect which he might have acquired, not only in Parliament, but through the whole kingdom; compare these glorious distinctions with the ambition of holding a share in government, the emoluments of a place, the sale of a borough, or the purchase of a cornew signature, and in a bolder style of attack. Aft- poration; and, though you may not regret the er assailing the Duke of Grafton, as we have seen virtues which create respect, you may see, with in the preceding letters, he now turns upon the Duke anguish, how much real importance and authorof Bedford in a spirit of still fiercer resentment. Heity you have lost. Consider the character of an reviews the whole public and private conduct of his Grace, and endeavors to call up all the odium of past transactions to enkindle new jealousies against him, 2 This and the next three paragraphs are among as about to give increased effect to a system of fa- the finest specimens of composition to be found in voritism in the closet; and seeks at the same time Junius. Nowhere has he made so happy a use of to overwhelm the Duke himself with a sense of dis- contrast. Commencing with a natural and expresshonor, baseness, and folly, which might make him ive image, he first sketches with admirable discrim shrink from the public eye. There is nothing in all ination the character and conduct to be expected in the writings of Janius that is more vehemently elo- the first peer of England, and then sets off against quent than the close of this letter. It is proper to it an artful and exaggerated representation of the add, that this eloquence is, in far too many cases, un-political errors and private weaknesses of the Duke supported by facts. of Bedford during the preceding thirty years.

independent, virtuous Duke of Bedford; imagine

what he might be in this country, then reflect | long life, have invariably chosen his friends from one moment upon what you are. If it be possi- among the most profligate of mankind. His own ble for me to withdraw my attention from the honor would have forbidden him from mixing his fact, I will tell you in theory what such a man private pleasures or conversation with jockeys, might be. gamesters, blasphemers, gladiators, or buffoons. He would then have never felt, much less would he have submitted to the dishonest necessity of

Conscious of his own weight and importance, his conduct in Parliament would be directed by nothing but the constitutional duty of a peer.engaging in the interests and intrigues of his deHe would consider himself as a guardian of the laws. Willing to support the just measures of government, but determined to observe the conduct of the minister with suspicion, he would oppose the violence of faction with as much firmness as the encroachments of prerogative. He would be as little capable of bargaining with the minister for places for himself or his dependents, as of descending to mix himself in the intrigues of Opposition. Whenever an important question called for his opinion in Parliament, he would be heard, by the most profligate minister, with deference and respect. His authority would either sanctify or disgrace the measures of government. The people would look up to him as to their protector, and a virtuous prince would have one honest man in his dominions, in whose integrity and judgment he might safely confide. If it should be the will of Providence to afflict him with a domestic misfortune, he would submit to the stroke with feeling, but not without dignity.3 He would consider the people as his children, and receive a generous, heart-felt consolation in the sympathizing tears and blessings of his country.

Your Grace may probably discover something more intelligible in the negative part of this illustrious character. The man I have described would never prostitute his dignity in Parliament by an indecent violence either in opposing or defending a minister. He would not at one moment rancorously persecute, at another basely cringe to the Favorite of his sovereign. After outraging the royal dignity with peremptory conditions, little short of menace and hostility, he would never descend to the humility of soliciting an interview with the Favorite, and of offering to recover, at any price, the honor of his friendship. Though deceived, perhaps, in his youth, he would not, through the course of a

pendents-of supplying their vices, or relieving their beggary at the expense of his country. He would not have betrayed such ignorance or such contempt of the Constitution as openly to avow, in a court of justice, the purchase and sale of a borough. He would not have thought it consistent with his rank in the state, or even with his personal importance, to be the little tyrant of a little corporation. He would never have been insulted with virtues which he had labored to extinguish, nor suffered the disgrace of a mortifying defeat, which has made him ridiculous and contemptible, even to the few by whom he was not detested. I reverence the afflictions of a good man—his sorrows are sacred. But how can we take part in the distresses of a man whom we can neither love nor esteem, or feel for a calamity of which he himself is insensible? Where was the father's heart when he could look for, or find an imme. diate consolation for the loss of an only son in consultations and bargains for a place at court, and even in the misery of balloting at the India House ?7

Admitting, then, that you have mistaken or deserted those honorable principles which ought to have directed your conduct; admitting that you have as little claim to private affection as to public esteem, let us see with what abilities, with what degree of judgment you have carried your own system into execution. A great man, in the success, and even in the magnitude of his crimes, finds a rescue from contempt. Your Grace is every way unfortunate. Yet I will not look back to those ridiculous scenes, by which, in your earlier days, you thought it an honor to be distinguished; the recorded stripes, the public infamy, your own sufferings, or Mr. Rigby's fortitude. These events undoubtedly left an im

who had so basely betrayed him." Horace Wal

3 The Duke had lately lost his only son, Lord Tav-pole confirms this statement. istock, by a fall from his horse. There is great beauty in the turn of the next sentence, "he would consider the people as his children," which might well be done by a descendant of Lord William Russell, whose memory was venerated by the people as a martyr in the cause of liberty. This thought gives double severity to the contrast that follows, in which the character and conduct of the Duke are presented in such a light, that, instead of being able to repose his sorrows on the bosom of the people, he had made himself an object of their aversion or contempt. As to the justice of these insinuations respecting a want of "feeling" and "dignity" under this calamity, see the remarks at the end of this Letter.

5 This he did in an answer in Chancery, when sued for a large sum paid him by a gentleman, whom he had undertaken (but failed) to return as a mem ber of Parliament. He was obliged to refund the money.

It is stated in a note by Junius, At this interview, which passed at the house of the late Lord Eglintonn, Lord Bute told the Duke that he was determed never to have any connection with a man

The town of Bedford had been greatly exasperated by the overbearing disposition of the Duke. To deliver themselves from the thraldom in which he had held them, they admitted a great number of strangers to the freedom of the corporation, and the Duke was defeated.

As to the justice of this cruel attack, see the remarks at the end of the present Letter.

Note by Junius. "Mr. Heston Humphrey, a country attorney, horse whipped the Duke, with equal justice, severity, and perseverance, on the course at Litchfield. Rigby and Lord Trentham were also cudgeled in a most exemplary manner. This gave

Soon after Lord Chatham was driven from office in the midst of his glorious ministry, Lord Bute sent the Duke of Bedford to negotiate a treaty of peace with France, which was signed November 3d, 1762. This sudden declaration of war against the FaThe concessions then made, which are here enumer vorite might have given you a momentary merit ated by Junius, were generally considered as highly with the public, if it had been either adopted dishonorable to the country. They were not, how-upon principle, or maintained with resolution. ever, chargeable to the Duke of Bedford personally, Without looking back to all your former servilthough he may have been liable to censure for consenting to negotiate such a treaty.

The insinuation which follows, respecting the Duke's having received “some private compensation," refers to a report in circulation soon after the treaty was signed, that the Duke had been bribed by the French, in common with the Princess Dowager of Wales, Lord Bute, and Mr. Henry Fox. The story was too ridiculous to be seriously noticed, but the matter was investigated by a committee of the House of Commons, and found to rest solely on the statement of a man named Musgrave, who had "no credible authority for the imputations of treachery and corruption which he was willing to propa gate."-See Heron's Junius, i., 269. Still, Junius revived the story at the end of six years, and, when called upon for proof, had nothing to allege, except that the Duke was understood to love money. "I combined the known temper of the man with the extravagant concessions of the embassador." There was another and perfectly well-known reason for these "concessions." Lord Bute could not raise funds to carry on the war. The moneyed men would not trust him. He was, therefore, compelled to make peace on such terms as he could obtain. The downright dishonesty of Junius in this case naturally leads us to receive all his statements with distrust, unless supported by other evidence.